New Canaan won conference and state championships, and Greenwich’s Sophie Passalacqua, Sarah Bogdan of Staples, New Canaan’s Sienna de Kanter and Fairfield Warde’s Alexandra Morgan all had tremendous seasons as four of the best runners in the state to highlight a very good 2025 girls cross country season for FCIAC runners and teams.
The New Canaan Rams nipped runner-up Greenwich by one point when their top five runners combined to score 52 points for the school’s first FCIAC championship since 1996.
Ten days later coach Jeff Brentson’s two-time defending champion Rams won the team title at the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference Girls Cross Country Class L Championships for the third consecutive year, and then they followed that up with a runner-up finish at the CIAC State Open.
Passalacqua established a new course record when she was the individual champion at the 2025 FCIAC Cross Country Championships one year after she was a runner-up freshman at last year’s conference championship meet.
After winning this year’s race Passalacqua followed that up with runner-up finishes at the Class LL state championship meet and the State Open.
Passalacqua set the new course record at FCIAC Championships with a time of 17 minutes, 51 seconds over the 5,000-meter course winding through the trails and fields at the usual venue of Waveny Park in New Canaan on Oct. 15.
Bogdan, a Staples senior, placed second with clocking of 18:10, de Kanter (18:45) was third and Morgan (18:59) took fourth.
That third-place finish from de Kanter, a junior, led New Canaan’s pack of its five scoring runners who all placed among the top 19 for that one-point victory over Greenwich.
Passalacqua led the Greenwich group of five scoring Cardinals in the top 20.
Team scores are accumulated by adding up the numbers of place positions for the five top finishers on each team, and the team with the lowest score is the winner.
New Canaan won with 52 points, just that one point less than the 53 points scored by runner-up Greenwich. Staples placed third with 93 points, and Ridgefield (145 points) was fourth.
Darien (173) rounded out the top five with 173 points, just one point less than the sixth-place Wilton Warriors (174), who were followed in the top 10 by Trumbull (179), Fairfield Warde (185), St. Joseph (200) and Danbury (270), while 11th-place Fairfield Ludlowe (271) had just one point more than Danbury.
For New Canaan, after Sienna de Kanter’s team-leading third-place finish, Georgina Harrington (19:00) placed fifth, Gabrielle Savelli (19:53) was 10th, the 15th-place finish by Mairead Greiner (20:06) earned Greiner the final spot on the 2025 All-FCIAC Girls Cross Country First Team, and Bridget de Kanter finished 19th (20:26) as that fifth scoring Ram.
In addition to Passalacqua’s victory, Greenwich’s following four scoring Cardinals were Eliana Daplyn (eighth place, 19:11), Adriana Bozza (11th, 19:54), Margaret McCooe (13th, 19:59), and Orla Muir (20th, 20:30).
Runners run their way onto either of the two All-FCIAC teams or the Connecticut High School Coaches Association all-state teams via class.
The top 15 runners from the conference championship meet earn their selections onto the All-FCIAC First Team and the 15 runners who finish in place positions 16-through-30 make the All-FCIAC Second Team.
Ridgefield’s Angelina Ruggeri placed sixth with a time of 19:03 at the FCIAC Championships, while the four other runners who made the All-FCIAC First Team were Avery Kalter (seventh place, 19:05) of Staples, Fairfield Warde’s Meghan Elterich (ninth, 19:16), St. Joseph’s Anasofia Monteirio (12th, 19:55), and Trumbull’s Maura Kane (14th, 20:01).
The 15 runners who ran their way onto the All-FCIAC Second Team, in order, were 16th-place finisher Jenna Mancuso of Wilton; Darien’s Jasmine Su; Wilton’s Olivia Johnson; New Canaan’s Bridget de Kanter; 20th-place Muir and Katharine Storm of Greenwich; St. Joseph’s Francesca Pagano; Trumbull’s Lauren Ash; Darien’s Mischa Gagliardi; 25th-place finisher Mary Jordan of New Canaan; Caroline Colvin of Wilton; Josephine Caricato, Emerson Menoni and Brooklyn Nizzardo of Staples; and Greenwich’s Kate Wick.
Sienna de Kanter became an individual state champion when she led New Canaan’s Rams to their impressive victory by the very comfortable margin of 47 points for their three-peat at the 2025 CIAC Girls Cross Country Class L Championships on Oct. 25 at Wickham Park in Manchester.
Sienna de Kanter won the 5-kilometer race with a time of 19:15.4 and Morgan placed second with a 19:26.4. Morgan was the defending champion. Morgan’s winning time of 19:19 last year when she was a junior was one second ahead of her Fairfield Warde teammate, Sophie Spelman, who was a senior last year.
Runners earn their positions on the CHSCA all-state teams by finishing among the top 12 in the state class championships or by placing among the top 25 at the State Open.
Greiner, a junior, and Savelli, a sophomore, made the CHSCA Girls Cross Country Class L All-State Team while contributing to New Canaan’s state title by placing 11th and 12th respectively.
And the near future looks very promising for the program given that there were no seniors among the five scoring Rams. Bridget de Kanter, a sophomore who is Sienna’s younger sister, placed 15th and freshman Mary Jordan was 35th to help lead New Canaan to its fourth state Class L championship in the last six seasons.
Mancuso of Wilton placed fourth (19:50.8) and Fairfield Warde’s Elterich was sixth (19:56.9) as they were the two other FCIAC runners on the CHSCA Class L All-State Team. Mancuso, a senior, was the only FCIAC runner among the 17 girls statewide who earned CHSCA Cross Country Academic All State distinction.
Greenwich placed second in the Class LL state championship meet. Glastonbury won with 44 points. Greenwich had 62 points and was followed by three more FCIAC teams in the top five – Ridgefield (138), Trumbull (152) and Staples (158).
It was a great race for the individual championship from a pair of sophomores. Lauren Parrett of Glastonbury had a winning time of 17:58.8 to nip Greenwich’s Passalacqua (17:59.8) by one second.
Passalacqua led the group of five FCIAC runners who placed among the top nine to make the CHSCA Class LL All-State Team.
Bogdan (19:03.3) of Staples placed fourth, Ruggeri (19:29.7) of Ridgefield and Greenwich’s Daplyn (19:37.3) were sixth and seventh respectively, and Greenwich’s Bozza (19:48.3) of was ninth.
Monteirio, a sophomore from St. Joseph, made the CHSCA Class MM All-State Team with her fourth-place finish in 20:09 at the Class MM state championship meet.
Glastonbury won the State Open by 15 points with 84 points and New Canaan placed second with 99 points, 24 less than third-place Mercy (123).
There were five FCIAC teams among the top 10 as there were 20 total schools involved in team scoring. Greenwich placed fourth with 143 points, Staples (251) was seventh, Ridgefield (303) took ninth place and Trumbull (310) was close behind to round out the top 10.
Chase Gilbert, a senior from Lyme-Old Lyme, won the race in 17:50.1 and Passalacqua (18:04.8) was runner-up.
Passalacqua, Bogdan (fourth place, 18:38.8), Sienna de Kanter (10th, 19:14.2) and Morgan (11th, 19:14.8) confirmed their status of being among the state’s best runners this year by placing among the top 11 at the State Open.
Harrington (22nd place), New Canaan’s freshman, qualified for her CHSCA All-State status by finishing among the top 25 at the State Open.