2016 NY Boys XC Preview: A Look Back At Last Year

2014 was always going to be a tough act to follow for last year's guys. After a year in which the state sent three teams to NXN Nationals that finished 1st, 4th and 8th, there was bound to be a drop back the next season. Preseason projections from Tully Runners made it clear that NY would only be getting its allotted two spots at Nationals unless the top teams had a huge boost in performance, and that did not happen. Liverpool and Fayetteville-Manlius again won the two tickets to Portland, while preseason state favorite St. Anthony's finished 4th at NXN-NY behind East Aurora, with neither team in the running for an at-large ticket, though the Blue Devils finished just 2 points behind FM. Liverpool dropped back 6 places from 2014 to finish 10th, and FM fell way back by 20 places to 21st. A week later, Fordham Prep's Conor Lundy and Carthage's Noah Affolder wrapped up the season nicely for the NY guys with a 7th and 15th at Foot Locker Nationals.

But if last year's guys did not fly overall as well as the 2014 bunch, there was still enough great times to keep the fans very happy. The Crusader Pre-States helped show off the power of East Aurora and Corning, and of a group of runners who would play huge places in the 2015 season, Noah Affolder and Kenny Vasbinder. Two weeks later, East Aurora would go head-to-head with the state's #1 team Liverpool in the McQuaid AAA race and lose a tiebreaker under the meet's unusual system for settling ties. The Warriors' Ben Petrella was the top finisher and the Blue Devils' Kenny Vasbinder was 2nd in the AAA race, but again it was Noah Affolder leading the way overall with a victory in the AA race. By the time of the Manhattan Invitational, East Aurora had firmly staked its claim to being one of the top teams in the state, but the Eastern States race would set the line for the three NY teams from 2014 NXN. Liverpool finished 4th in Manhattan's Eastern States, with Fayetteville-Manlius 5th, and St. Anthony's 7th, and a rising Corning team taking 9th, as the NY teams finished far back from their 2014 places. Again, Noah Affolder was the top guy, dominating the region's top runners, while Noah Carey edged Ben Petrella for 4th place.

By the time late October rolled around, the likely roles were established for most of the eight state major conference championships, and they would be played out as expected. Liverpool knocked off Fayetteville-Manlius in the Section 3-A qualifier and went on to beat Corning in the States A championship at Monroe-Woodbury with Ben Petrella in 1st. Pittsford Mendon took its third straight States championship in Class B, though Maine-Endwell kept the victory margin to 11 points, and Noah Affolder was once again triumphant to get his second States crown. East Aurora was simply dominating while picking up another Class C title, and Kenny Vasbinder picked up a repeat crown. Finally, Lake Placid lived up to its #1 ranking by taking Class D to join Saranac Lake in 1995 as the only Section 7 team to win at States, while East Rochester's Dawson Bathgate claimed the individual title.

There were certainly no surprises in the CHSAA as St. Anthony's was 12 points better than Xavier for a second straight title, and Conor Lundy was well out in front for Fordham Prep. Out west St. Joseph's Collegiate and Anthony Belfatto were repeat winners. The NYC public school title went to Stuyvesant by 7 points over Midwood, and Curtis's John Akakeya remained undefeated to take the individual title. The margin was also 7 points for Collegiate's 19th straight championship in the AIS, and Aidan Ryan finished 1st for runner-up Trinity.

The battle at Federations was one for the ages, as St. Anthony's held off Xavier by 89-91 to capture a repeat title. The duel at the top was also fantastic as Saratoga's Aidan Tooker outlegged Noah Affolder and Conor Lundy. A week later at Nike-NXN, Liverpool was far ahead of the rest of the teams, but Fayetteville-Manlius was a scant 2 points ahead of East Aurora to win the second berth to Nationals. Ben Petrella won the race, and behind him were the five at-large qualifiers, Aidan Tooker, Kenny Vasbinder, Maine-Endwell's Dan Schaffer, McQuaid's Donny Glavin, and Noah Carey, with Fayetteville-Manlius's Bryan Geehrer heading the Hornets up among the leaders in 6th. The NY guys had a great showing at the Foot Locker Northeast qualifier as Noah Affolder took 1st and Conor Lundy 3rd, with Eion Nohilly of John Jay-Cross River two spots away from qualifying in 12th. From there, it was off to Nationals for 21 NY guys in either Portland or San Diego.