A Visual (and Colorful) History of The New York XC State Meet (2014 update)

Perry King
The Colors of States:

Charting the Year-by-Year NYS Championships in 11 Brilliant Sectional Hues
 
                     

 
Since the New York State Cross Country Championship began for the guys back in 1950, teams and runners from around the state have been piling up trophies that proclaim them the best of the best. And being the way it is, New York has made sure that the battle for the top spots runs through geographically oriented scholastic sports organizations called the sectional committees that decide which runners go to the States meet. Usually the results of each section's State Qualifier meet makes filling out the selections lists for States pretty pat, but sometimes huge storms blow in and throw many monkey wrenches into the process. But eventually by the second week in November the results all get sorted out and the kings and queens of the NY XC trails are crowned as state champions.

Along with the individual and team championships at States that get heavy analysis and lengthy previews, there is another kind of oddball competition known as the intersectional contests that pits the 12 runners from each section in a States race against the other sectional squads. Thus, after spewing venom at each other all year, runners from Saratoga and Shenendehowa or East Aurora and Starpoint have to shake hands and run together in peace and harmony as they represent the pride and power of their section. The battle for sectional bragging rights in NY has always had its quirks, but at the end of it a dozen champion runners get to pose for another picture and receive another souvenir shirt at the awards ceremonies following States.

To be blunt, very little attention is paid to just about anything relating to the intersectional contests nowadays, though back in 1950 they seemed to have major importance. The fact that the Beaver River guys helped propel Section 3 to four intersectional championships between 1996 and 1999 is likely little remembered, but that the Beavers won four of their fourteen team championships during that period at least gets a little more traction. When we ask, "Which section of NY has bragging rights at States?" we look at what the teams and top runners have done to tally up the championships. And since there are races for both boys and girls and up to five different size classifications, there are a lot of special niches over which any of the sections can claim dominance.

Listing the championship numbers in the long standard tables is one way to take a look at the Sectional Bragging Rights question, but fortunately there is another visual cue that can help to tell the story and elucidate the results. Each of the 11 sections is assigned a color, and until recently the runners at the championship ran in a States shirt of their section's color, though it made keeping track of the team battles very tough at times. How the colors were selected is unknown, though some Ivy League connections may have been involved in the choices. Section 1 got Columbia (light) blue, Section 2 got maroon, Section 3 got yellow, Section 4 got red, Section 5 got lilac, Section 6 got orange, Section 7 got Dartmouth (dark) green, Section 8 got kelly (light) green, Section 9 got royal (dark) blue, Section 10 got black, and Section 11 got navy blue.


When you combine the listings of the States team and individual championships with sectional colors, you get something like:

NYS Boys States Champions in Color
and likewise
NYS Girls States Champions in Color


Admittedly, the charts are a little garish and most fans outside of sections 2 and 3 would think that maroon and yellow are a bit overused, but it is what it is. Certain colors seem to explode in some years and eras, only to fade away for awhile before maybe making a comeback in later years. In some years the guys' and girls' color listings seem to be running in step together, occasionally getting so eerily crazy as in 2001 that the team winners for classes A and B were from the same school for the boys and girls and the Class C team winners were from the same section. The picture of the sectional contest is also a little muddy because of the following issues:

--- All of the Long Island schools competed under the Section 8 brand until 1957, when Nassau and Suffolk were split into sections 8 and 11. This fact comes from newspapers of the 1950s era and sectional scores in the States souvenir book, though I can see no mention of it on the NYSPHSAA site. Thus I have assigned four 1950s Port Jefferson and Bay Shore titles to Section 8, noted with an 11 in parentheses. I can understand however that Section 11 feels it has a strong claim to the those titles in its tally.

--- Some schools have moved from one section to another, most notably a group of current Section 1 Rockland County teams, who were in Section 9 through 1983. The pre-1984 titles for Rockland schools such as Pearl River, Tappan Zee, and Albertus Magnus are all naturally credited to Section 9, but the bracketed 1 following the listing is provided as an alert that the section assignment is not a mistake.

--- Girls were not allowed to compete at States until 1975, so the boys had 25 more years to pad their title counts to over 400. The boys have had 63 years of competitions, and the girls have had 38 years to win a total of more than 260 titles.

--- From 1950 through 1957, only six of the eleven current sections actually competed at States, those being sections 1, 2, 3, 4, 8, and 9. Though eastern Long Island runners were competing at the meet from the beginning, it was only in 1958 that they began competing under the Section 11 banner in spiffy navy blue shirts. Section 6 became the eighth participant in 1962, and Section 5 followed in 1968. Section 10 made its first mark in 1971, and Section 7 finally seems to have appeared on the scene in 1976.

--- The number of classes at the meet have had the following configuration.
Boys: 1950-1959 (A, B), 1960-1998 (A, B, C), 1999-2003 (A, B, C, D), 2004-2010 (AA, A, B, C, D), 2011-2012 (A, B, C, D).
Girls: 1975-1976 (A), 1977-1979 (A, B), 1980-1998 (A, B, C), 1999-2003 (A, B, C, D), 2004-2010 (AA, A, B, C, D), 2011-2013 (A, B, C, D).

So yeah, the title listings are a bit messy. Because of the relatively brief period for Class AA, I have lumped AA and A totals together in the sectional dominance discussions below.


So Who Wins the Battles in the States Sectional Color Wars?
 
There are many ways to judge the validity of any section's bragging rights to being the best at States, no matter how weak the claims. but the truth is as follows.

* Which section has the biggest title stash overall?    In the end, it is the yellow hues of Section 3 that have the most staying power on the color charts. S3 has racked up 90 team and individual title medals on the guys' side to dominate the action over there, and with a further contribution of 56 championships from the girls, the total of 146 outstrips Section 2's second-place total by 41.

* If the bragging rights overall and on the boys' side belong to one section, who's tops for the girls?  Helped a little bit by the past accomplishments of a team called Saratoga, the Section 2 girls are holding on to their lead over Section 3 by 59 to 56. S3 has sliced the deficit from 10 to 3 during the last six years, though, so there is some tectonic action roiling the landscape here.

* Which sections do best at the team level?  Again the two overall best sections dominated the team championship action, with Section 3 way out in front with 85 wins and Section 2 taking 69. Both sections have a huge skew of team versus individual titles, and Section 2 has won almost twice as many team as individual crowns.

* Who's best at being individual champs?    Although Section 3 again has by far the beefiest figures for individual wins with 61, it is Section 1 that is the closest competitor with 41. On the guys' side the competition is fierce as Section 3 leads Section 1 by 2 at 34-31. Section 3 has a lead of 27-22 over Section 2 on the girls' side.

*Who's the best in the bigs?    In the top classes, which include mainly A with seven years of AA added in, Section 2 is the dominator, racking up 46 of its 69 overall team titles here along with 22 of its 36 overall individual titles for a total of 68 championships in classes A and AA. Section 3 is second overall with 25 teamand 23 individual titles, for a total of 48.

* Which class has the biggest dominator?  Simply put, boys Class C has belonged to Section 3, which has won 29 of the 42 C team titles and 13 of the individual crowns. The S3-C girls also lead on their side with 12 team titles and 10 individual wins, so together the S3 runners have taken 64 of the 176 titles. The Section 2 A-AA girls by themselves are percentage-wise the biggest dominators in a class with a 27-15 (42) share of 90 titles, but S3 has the heaviest combined load. For combined team titles, Section 3 Class C squads have taken 41 team titles and Section 2 Class A squads have 40, and the Section 3 Class C runners have also picked up the most combined individual titles in a class with 23.

* Which is the most egalitarian of the classes?  Class B spreads the wealth around the best. Every section has won at least one individual title in Class B, and all the sections except 7 have won at least one team title on either side. In an odd pairing, the Section 10-B boys have won 3 team titles but no individual titles, and the Section 7-B guys have won 3 individual titles but no team titles. On the guys' side, the Section 1-B boys are in the lead with 12 team and 13 individual titles to stay ahead of the Section 9-B guys, who are at 11-11. The Section 6-B girls have won 14 overall titles with 9 team wins to edge the Section 5-B girls, who have 12 overall and 7 team titles. The Section 11-B girls have the most individual crowns with 7.

 *Which section had the most dominating year of all time?  The most titles ever picked up by the combined runners of a section at a States meet was in 2006, when the Section 2 girls took 4 titles and the guys scored 3 more for a total of 7. However, there were 20 titles on the line that year, so S2 won 35% of them. During the 4-class years, no section has won more than 6 titles or 37.5%, and that feat was done by Section 1 in 1999 and Section 3 in 2003 and 2011. The best marks during the 3-class boys-girls era was 6 titles for Section 3 in 1985 and 1997, for 50% of the titles. In the boys-only 3-class era, Section 1 took 4 championships in 1963 and then back-to-back-to-back in 1965-1967, for 66.7%. And the best percentage was recorded by Section 1 in the first 2-class championship in 1950 with 3 titles for 75%, which was matched by the non-split Section 8 and 11 group in 1953. For a 5 year period, Section 1's capture of 17 of 30 titles from 1963 to 1967 is the most impressive display of dominance at States.

*Where is the exciting action going on in the overall States titles competition?    Section 3 is way out in front in the titles race, and Sections 2 and 1 are pretty comfortably ensconced in their 2nd and 3rd positions, but the rest of the competition has some close, fierce action, though changes in position don't happen that frequently. One milestone that occurred in 2012 happened when Section 2 picked up 4 of the 16 titles to move over the century mark. Section 9 has 65 titles and is sitting comfortably in 4th place. Section 5 has picked up 11 titles in the last five years and is 5 ahead of Section 11 in 5th, though if you credited Section 11 with the four 1950s Port Jeff and Bay Shore titles it would be only 1 behind.. Last year the surging Section 6 moved ahead of Section 8 (with the four ambiguous Port Jeff and Bay Shore titles added in) into 7th by 47-46, and Section 4 is close behind at 42..

* What's the story down at the bottom?    Though the Adirondack area sections run far behind the others in their greed for titles, they do have kind of an exciting competition going on, with Section 7 having popped the cork off the Champagne bottle from 2005 through 2009 to move ahead of Section 10 by a score of 13-10 for States titles. Only one of Section 7's titles has been a team title, and that was Saranac Lake's 1992 boys C championship. Two of Section 10's highlights came back in 1979 and 1980 when Tupper Lake's Marty Beauchamp not only won the small Class C titles but was also the fastest guy at States overall in both years.

* Who got lucky in 2013?    The richest got even more muddy filthy rich as Section 3 picked up 5 more titles, but Section 9 did well by picking up three titles in three different classes. Milestones were broken, as the Section 2-D boys got their first individual title thanks to Greenwich's Jeremy Spezio, and the Section 6-D girls got their first individual title due to Maple Grove's Hope Pietrocarlo.
   
 
The States Championship Tables
 
 
Overall - Boys and Girls
  Boys   Girls   Combined
Section Team Individ Total   Team Individ Total   Team Individ Total
1 26 31 57   16 10 26   42 41 83
2 32 14 46   37 22  59   69 36 104
3 56 34 90   29 27 56   85 61 146
4 11 18 29   5 8 13   16 26 42
5 14 23 37   9 14 23   23 37 60
6 12 15 27   12 8 20   24 23 47
7 1 7 8   0 5 5   1 11 12
8 14 19 33   6 7 13   20 26 46
9 15 21 36   14 15 29   29 36 65
10 4 3 7   2 1 3   6 4 10
11 19 19 38   2 15 17   21 34 55
Total 204 204 408   132 132 264   336 336 672
 
 Boys by Class
  AA   A   B   C   D
Section Team Individ Total   Team Individ Total   Team Individ Total   Team Individ Total   Team Individ Total
1 0 1 1   10 6 16   12 13 25   4 11 15   0 0 0
2 4 2 6   18 6 34   5 3 8   4 2 6   1 1 2
3 2 2 4   9 10 19   10 6 16   29 13 42   6 3 9
4 0 0 0   7 6 13   0 3 3   4 6 10   0 3 3
5 0 1 1   7 5 12   5 7 12   0 6 6   2 4 6
6 0 0 0   4 5 9   5 5 10   0 4 4   3 1 4
7 0 0 0   0 0 0   0 3 3   1 1 2   0 3 3
8 0 0 0   3 10 13   5 7 12   6 2 8   0 0 0
9 1 0 1   1 6 7   11 11 22   0 4 4   2 0 2
10 0 0 0   0 0 0   3 0 3   0 3 3   1 0 1
11 0 1 1   5 10 15   8 6 14   6 2 8   0 0 0
Total 7 7 14   64 64 126   64 64 128   54 54 108   15 15 30
 
 Girls by Class
  AA   A   B   C   D
Section Team Individ Total   Team Individ Total   Team Individ Total   Team Individ Total   Team Individ Total
1 0 0 0   0 1 1   3 2 5   10 7 17   3 0 3
2 2 2 4   22 12 34   7 5 12   2 2 4   4 1 5
3 5 3 8   9 8 17   1 3 4   12 10 22   2 3 5
4 0 0 0   1 0 1   1 3 4   1 4 5   2 1 3
5 0 1 1   1 3 4   7 5 12   0 2 2   1 3 4
6 0 0 0   0 1 1   9 5 14   0 1 1   3 1 4
7 0 0 0   0 0 0   0 2 2   0 0 0   0 3 3
8 0 0 0   4 5 9   2 2 4   0 0 0   0 0 0
9 0 1 1   2 4 6   5 2 7   7 6 13   0 2 2
10 0 0 0   0 0 0   1 1 2   1 0 1   0 0 0
11 0 0 0   0 5 5   1 7 8   1 2 3   0 1 1
Total 7 7 14   39 39 78   37 37 74   34 34 68   15 15 30
 
 Combined Boys and Girls by Class
  AA   A   B   C   D
Section Team Individ Total   Team Individ Total   Team Individ Total   Team Individ Total   Team Individ Total
1 0 1 1   10 7 17   15 15 30   14 18 32   3 0 3
2 6 4 10   40 18 58   12 8 20   6 4 10   5 2 7
3 7 5 12   18 18 36   11 9 20   41 23 64   8 6 14
4 0 0 0   8 6 14   1 6 7   5 10 15   2 4 6
5 0 2 2   8 8 16   12 12 24   0 8 8   3 7 10
6 0 0 0   4 6 10   14 10 24   0 5 5   6 2 8
7 0 0 0   0 0 0   0 5 5   1 1 2   0 6 6
8 0 0 0   7 15 22   7 9 16   6 2 8   0 0 0
9 1 1 2   3 10 13   16 13 29   7 10 17   2 2 4
10 0 0 0   0 0 0   4 1 5   1 3 4   1 0 1
11 0 1 1   5 15 20   9 13 22   7 4 11   0 1 1
Total 14 14 28   103 103 206   101 101 202   88 88 176   30 30 60