We're excited to inform you that Sunshine Park in West Seneca on East and West Road, our "home" cross country course, has been selected to host the 2014 Section VI Cross Country State Championships Qualifier on Friday, October 31st (Halloween). This event is the advancement competition to the NYSPHSAA Cross Country Championships to be held on the SUNY Canton campus the following Saturday.
Only two other locations have ever hosted this prestigious and significant event in Section VI Cross Country history. They are Long Point State Park in Bemus Point NY, which has hosted twice and most recently last season, and at the famous Elma Meadows Golf Course all other years. Our Section is still not being allowed to return to Elma Meadows so the search was on for a new host course. The Section VI Cross Country Committee voted among three potential locations and eventually elected Sunshine Park to host after each location and corresponding sponsor was able to present their visions and course.
Our school community and District are very honored to be hosting this event and, between our program and the Town of West Seneca, we have put a tremendous amount of time into transforming Sunshine Park into a course and experience that is worthy of the most important local Cross Country competition of each season. In fact, we are hosting the 20th West Seneca Cross Country Invitational at Sunshine Park on Saturday, September 13th and 53 programs will be represented from here in Section VI, but also neighboring Section V, as well as Canada currently! I’ve attached the most recent list of programs that have committed to participating and will be represented at our Invitational which has grown into the largest competition of its kind in Section VI. This will be a good preview of what we expect to be a high quality experience on October 31st. Many of the top programs locally and abroad will be competing at our Invitational.
Hopefully, you can take some time and space to alert the general public of the good work being done to highlight our school community and Section VI in this historic endeavor and true "labor of love" at Sunshine Park.
20th West Seneca Cross Country Invitational As of 9/5/14 – 53 programs represented 30 “Small” 23 “Large” Addison (Section 5) Canisius Akron Chinguacousy Secondary School (Canada) Alden Fairport (Section 5) Amherst Grand Island Barker Hamburg Bishop Kearney (Section 5) Hutchison Technical Buffalo Seminary Iroquois Charter School for Applied Technologies Jamestown City Honors Kenmore East Depew Kenmore West East Aurora Lake Shore East Rochester (Section 5) Lancaster Eden Niagara Falls Frederick Law Olmstead Our Lady of Mercy (Section 5) Fredonia Rush-Henrietta (Section 5) Geneseo (Section 5) St. Francis Gowanda St. Joseph’s Immaculata Academy Starpoint John F. Kennedy West Seneca East Lewiston Porter West Seneca West Medina/Lyndonville Williamsville East Mt. St. Mary’s Williamsville North Newfane Williamsville South Nichols Notre Dame-Batavia (Section 5) Royalton-Hartland Sacred Heart Tonawanda Wayland-Cohocton (Section 5) Wilson