State of the Action: An interesting battle.  Some favorites out front, and some pleasant surprises out front.  As expected, the top pair of Bella Burda (Arlington) and Jess Lawson (Corning) got out together quick. It was set to be a duel to the finish, yet there was surprising company coming down the stretch.  Abbey Wheeler (Elmira) proved she was at her best at Bowdoin, and closed the gap on the first two in the final stretch.  FM, as expected, was putting on a strong showing.  Their fifth girl at States, and now running as their 1st, Olivia Ryan was with the top group through the first two miles, and came across the line strong. 

The battle for 4th and 5th individual qualifiers came from upstate.  Anna Kostarellis (Churchville-Chili), just three days after being named to NY Future Stars Team, proved we didn't have to wait too far into the future.  The sophomore was joined by Emily MacKay (Union-Endicott).  The junior was an underrated talent at States, placing second in her class after being unranked coming in.  Once again unranked coming into regionals, MacKay ran a strong race to book her flight to Portland. 

The story of the day was that 3 of the 5 girls who qualified as individuals were from Section 4, highlighting their rise in talent depth in the past two years.