Section 1 Coaches Meet Preview: Girls Races

Bowdoin Park, Wappingers Falls

Meet Info Snapshot

The Section 1 Coaches' meet gives runners a highly competitive practice run on the course used for the State Qualifiers, and the Bowdoin Park Hill helps to remind everyone how much better the world would be if it was pancake flat. The weather should be perfect for running, so the Coaches meet mud bogfest at Bowdoin from two years appears unlikely to be repeated. Last year, the meet was held like Sectionals and States, at Pawling's Green Mountain Lake course, and the races were expanded to 4 varsity races apiece for the boys and girls since so many teams attended from around NY.

This year's meet will go back to three varsity races on each side, and the field will not include some of the 2010 attendees, such as East Aurora and Honeoye Falls-Lima, who won races last year.  For the girls, two ranked NYS Class A teams, 6  ranked NYS-B teams, and 2 of the top NYS-C teams will be running. The Varsity-2 race features the big battle between the top NYS-C team Bronxville and the top local Class A team Suffern. Varsity 1 showcases the insanely young Garden City team from LI, with Arlington and Nanuet giving a challenge. The Varsity-3 race has top local Class B team Pearl River taking on a group including LI's East Meadow, Brewster, Somers and possibly Monroe-Woodbury. The top two runners are Bronxville's Mary Cain and Suffern's Ursula Svoboda, and they will battle in race 2 along with their respective teammates, Broncos' Meredith Rizzo and Mounties' Kate Zendell. Garden City's young sister tandem of Stephanie and Jennifer Gerland will be featured in race 1, and Brewster's Ariana Bottalico will get a practice run at holding off the Pearl River runners headed by Molly Shine in race 3.

The Section 1 teams at the Coaches meet are jockeying for position going into Sectionals. Suffern and Arlington will be gauging their strengths versus each other for the S1-A battle. Nanuet will be looking to see what the distance is to the Pirate ship ahead of it. In Class C, Bronxville will be trying to get set for another clash of Class-C titans with Greenwich 13 days later up at Vernon-Verona-Sherrill HS.

2011 Overview

About 66 girls teams are listed to be attending the meet. The Varsity-2 race appears to be a little stronger and has 16 runners entered with TRs over 100. Note that the situation for a number of teams is unclear, as there are about ten top runners who have either not run in awhile or have had much lower TR ratings recently, often a sign of injury. Runners who have not run in over a month are excluded form this preview, but there are a number who last ran on Sept. 24 that are of uncertain status.

Nine runners with TRs over 120 include: Mary Cain (Bronxville) 145, Ursula Svoboda (Suffern) 130, Stephanie Gerland (Garden City) 130, Jennifer Gerland (Garden City) 126, Ariana Bottalico (Brewster) 126, Meredith Rizzo (Bronxville) 125, Megan Young (Nanuet) 124, Kate Zendell (Suffern) 123, Molly Shine (Pearl River) 122. The Gerlands and Zendell are all 8th or 9th graders.

Varsity Race I

Race Info: The first girls' varsity race kicks off at 1:00. New Section 8 power Garden City will likely be controlling this race. The Trojans have the misfortune of being in the same S8-B group as national power North Shore, but 8th and 9th grade sisters Stephanie and Jennifer Gerland and 9th grader Emma Gallagher lead a very young team that has the depth to likely run far ahead of the competition. Arlington is led now by Olivia Beltrani and Sabrina Johnston and Nanuet has Megan Young and Mary Kate O'Meara at top, and they will be looking to get themselves set up for state qualifier bids. Mahopac with Corinne Florie as frontrunner appears to be fourth best here, and then there is a gap to the next teams. And it's hard to beat the name of Middletown's frontrunner for XC.

Top 7 Teams: Garden City (NYS-B #6) 109.8, Arlington (NYS-A #19, S1-A #2) 100.6, Nanuet (NYS-B #10, S1-B #2) 99.8, Mahopac (S1-A #4) 82.3, Ursuline 61.2, Yorktown 53.8, John Jay - Cross River 52.4. Next: Onteora, Scarsdale, Clarkstown South, Rye Neck, Middletown

Top 30 Runners: Stephanie Gerland (GC) 130, Jennifer Gerland (GC) 126, Megan Young (Nan) 124, Natalie Tanner (RN) 113, Emily Waligurski (Ont) 113, Olivia Beltrani (Arl) 110, Mary Kate O'Meara (Nan) 109, Sabrina Johnston (Arl) 108, Emma Gallagher (GC) 106, Amber Goodspeed (Mid) 105, Delphi Cleaveland (Arl) 104 (status uncertain), Katherine Doyle (Sleepy Hollow) 103, Corinne Florie (Maho) 103, Julia Rubin Armstrong (Ont) 96, Sarah Rubino (GC) 94, Lauren Fernandez (Nan) 94, Katie O'Neill (GC) 93, Katherine Aguiar (Nan) 92, Lindsay Asselmayer (Arl) 91, Marina Eberhardt (Arl) 90, Alex Desarden (Maho) 86, Alexxa Guerrero (Mid) 85, Serina Hughes (Maho) 84, Laurel Fisher (GC) 83, Helen Clapp (Scars) 83, Megan Chan (Scars) 83, Marina Araujo (CS) 81, Chloe Tannhauser (Arl) 81, Rachel Sweeney (JJCR) 80, Kayla Sullivan (Arl) 78, Lauren Markoe (Arl) 75

Varsity Race II

Race Info: Race II starts at 2:00. Bronxville has the top rating of the teams at the meet, and the Broncos are expected to take this race against a challenge from Suffern. Mary Cain, the predicted individual winner, and Meredith Rizzo have a supporting group of Courtney Campbell, Amelia Phillips, Argentina Chrappa, and Emelie Hoffer who are all capable of going over 100 in the race, though obviously building for States is the main focus. Suffern's Ursula Svoboda won race 2 last year, but she and her team are going up against the top team in the region. A quartet of Tappan Zee, John Jay - East Fishkill, Lakeland-Panas, and West Islip should all be battling for the 3rd place trophy.

Top 7 Teams: Bronxville (NYS-C #1, S1-C #1) 114.0, Suffern (NYS-A #9, S1-A #1), Tappan Zee (NYS-B #18, S1-B #3) 85.4, John Jay - East Fishkill (S1-A #5) 81.8, LakelandPanas (S1-A #6) 81.8, West Islip 79.8, Holy Trinity 66.0. Our Lady of Lourdes, Clarkstown North, Rye, Ardsley, Minisink Valley, Horace Greeley

Top 30 Runners: Mary Cain (Brx) 145, Ursula Svoboda (Suf) 130, Meredith Rizzo (Brx) 125, Kate Zendell (Suf) 123, Allison Davis (MV) 110, Megan Jaskot (TZ) 110, Caroline Brown (HT) 107, Claire Gomba (JJEF) 106, Gabrielle Robert (JJEF) 106 (status uncertain), Katherine Loomba (Arl) 105, Taryn Colon (Suf) 102 (status uncertain), Jessica Ball (WI) 102, Courtney Campbell (Brx) 102, Paige Cloonan (FL) 102, Carolina Casin Silva (LP) 101, Amelia Phillips (Brx) 100, Argentina Chrappa (Brx) 98, Emelie Hoffer (Brx) 96, Ashleigh Bowen (Suf) 95, Madison Goldrick (TZ) 92, Morgan Nobles (Brx) 91, Kaylee Divico (LP) 91, Angelica Matwiejczuk (Suf) 91, Emily Betts (CN) 91, Ellen Friedman (Rye) 87, Julie Laudenschlager (WI) 87, Rachel Ludwikowski (Suf) 86, Selena Colon (Ard) 84, Jennifer Taylor (HG) 82, Annie O'Connell (WI) 81, Marianne Bartolotta (HT) 81, Rachel Sweeney (JJEF) 81

Varsity Race III

Race Info: Finishes off day at 4:30. Pearl River appears to have a very big edge over the other teams in this race, though there are question marks about some of the squads. The Pirates appear well set for state qualifiers with a top quartet of Molly Shine, Kelly Hayes, Ceili McMorrow, and Maria Kohlbrenner camped out in 100+ TR territory and auditions underway for a 5th runner to join them up there. The next strongest team could be LI's East Meadow led by Meaghan Peysson, though few ratings are available for the Jets. Brewster with the race's top runner, Ariana Bottalico, could also finish 2nd if the 4-5 spots do well. Monroe-Woodbury appears to have lost top runner Meaghan Ventarola for the season but could still battle for a trophy. Somers will also be in the running among the top 5.

Top 7 Teams: Pearl River (NYS-B #5, S1-C #1) 108.6, East Meadow 87.6, Brewster (NYS-B #24, S1-B #4) 87.0, Monroe-Woodbury 81.0, Somers (NYS-B #23, S1-B #5) 80.2, Pawling (NYS-C #15, S1-C #2) 75.6, White Plains (S1-A #7) 71.0. Next: Dobbs Ferry, Pelham, Bishop Gibbons, Irvington, Harrison

Top 30 Runners: Ariana Bottalico (Brew) 126, Molly Shine (PR) 122, Kelly Hayes (PR) 118, Sarah King (DF) 111, Ceili McMorrow (PR) 111, Nicki Nesi (Pel) 110, Talya Williams (BG) 109, Deirdre Dwyer (Spackenkill) 104, Maria Kohlbrenner (PR) 103, Meaghan Peysson (EM) 103, Bene Abbate (Som) 97, Nilam Patel (EM) 95, Sarah Corning (Som) 93, Jamie Maguire (Brew) 93, Dylan Scerri (Brew) 92, Christina Zelenoy (MW) 90, Caitlin Lardaro (PR) 89, Jackie Krueger (Som) 89, Laura Cooper (PR) 88, Zoe Nagasing (Pawl) 88, Sarah Marvin (Pawl) 87, Morgan Meaney (Pawl) 86, Randi Gomez (MW) 86, Taylor Edgecomb (EM) 85, Brittany Cutler (EM) 85, Emma Haley (PR) 84, Eleanor Trelstad (WP) 84, Sara Purinton (Har) 83, Kelsey Esselman (MW) 82, Jean Boyle (MW) 82