The La Salle Academy boys have gotten some much-deserved national recognition lately.
Chance are a little more will start coming the girls' way.
Following a strong second-place finish last week to Blacksburg, Va., at the Great American X-C Festival, the Lady Rams once again took runner-up honors against a national-caliber team on Saturday at the Reebok Manhattan Invitational.
With three of its runners among the first 13 finishers at Van Cortlandt Park, La Salle was just 33 points shy of team champion Fayetteville Manlius, N.Y., for the team crown in the Eastern States Championship. F-M collected 34 points, while the Rams finished with 67 points.
The race was won by Weini Kelati of Heritage, Va., with a time of 14:20.60 for the challenging four-kilometer course. Finishing not too far behind the gifted frosh was the La Salle tandem of junior Karina Tavares and senior Sheridan Wilbur, who were fourth and fifth, respectively, with identical times of 14:34.0. Junior Eliza Rego was 13th at 15:01.60. Junior Audery O'Neill (22nd, 15:18.40) and junior Cianna Lynch (35th, 15:39.90) completed the scoring for La Salle.
Fayetteville Manlius also took the boys' title with a 73-113 verdict over second-place Liverpool. Bishop Hendricken was ninth overall among the 25 teams with 280 points. Senior Michael Potter was the first Hawk across the line, taking 34th overall with a time of 12:59.70. Senior Tim Grizzetti (48th, 13:08.50), junior Avery Ingegneri (56th, 13:14.50), junior Dominic Parlato (57th, 13:15.20) and senior Grant Gauthier (101st, 13:40.70) also scored for Hendricken.