Fayetteville-Manlius wins
National Title

Saratoga girls 3rd,  Burnt Hills 5th

LOCAL BOYS: Danbury 5th, Brookline 7th, Don Bosco 10th, Warwick 11th, Shenendehowa 14th.

LOCAL GIRLS: FM 1st, Saratoga 3rd, Hanover 4th, Burnt Hills 5th,, Lincoln Sudbury 8th, Warwick 11th, Voorhees 13th.

Results:  Complete Results from all races

NTN Videos: NTN Video Page (All Videos)

NTN Photos: Friday Course Preview

Articles: NTN Race Preview / Mountain Brook (AL) Girls Preview / North Central (WA) Boys Preview

 (Photo by Tyrone Hoskins)

By Christopher Hunt

    He said the answer was both simple and complex — the reason Manilus has become a historic team, unquestionably among the best ever. They bought it, coach Bill Aris said.

    They made a choice. They made conscious effort to make  excellence a lifestyle.

    “Normal has nothing to do with excellence,” Aris said. “Excellence is another approach all together. If you choose to approach your life in a fashion geared to achieve excellence then the question becomes, how high is up?”

    Manilus continues to reach new limits. They dominated Nike Team Nationals today, winning their second straight national title with 83 points, placing three in the top 10 at 5-kilometer course in Portland, Ore. Courtney Chapman led the team in eighth, finishing in 19 minutes, 23.6 seconds. Hannah Luber followed in ninth in 19:25.1 and MacKenzie Carter 10th in 19:30.8.

    “We ran a race up to our capabilities,” Aris said. “we ran like we have most of the season. We ran a strength race. A week ago at New York NTN we ran more of a tactical race. Today we were more aggressive.”

    Kinetic RC (Saratoga Springs) finished third in the team standings with 171 points led by Hannah Davidson in fifth place. Davidson was fourth in 19:08.0. Madeline Morgan of Caution XC Club (Mountain Brook H.S., Ala.) won the race in 18:54.5. Hanover of New Hampshire was fourth with 206 points. Burnt Hills finished fifth with 209.

    Burnt Hills’ Sam Roecker, the New York Regional champ, finished third overall in 19:06.9. Naperville of Illinois won the boys race with 125 points, edging Los Alamos of New Mexico, which had 127.  Neperville’s Christopher Derrick won the individual title in 15:39.8.

    Danbury led the Northeast region, finishing fifth with 203 points. Warwick finished 11th with 286 and Clifton Park TC (Shenendehowa) was 14th with 334.

    Manlius went unchallenged throughout the race. They had nearly 50 points after the first 1,000 meters. Aris’s demeanor was as stoic as it’s always been. He was already looking ahead, not giving much thought to the way that his team, with only one senior, has etched themselves into history.
    
    “Certainly, we recognized and appreciate that,” he said of the national-attention. “We feel great to be thought of as maybe one of the best teams in history. But we leave that to the historians and the people who reflect on those things.”

    So their won’t be much time for reflect. He talked about this race as a fulfillment of his team’s potential. He said they achieved their goal for today.

    Key in on the word “today”. Tomorrow they’ll be another team trying to work toward another championship. Not the favorites. Not the champs. Manilus will be another team working to fulfill its potential. Or they’ll tell themselves that.

    “Last year we had a wonderful group of girls that came together at the end of the season and won the championship,” Aris said. “Before that no one thought they had a chance. So if it’s the case that any team can win, there is no favorites.”

    Reach Christopher Hunt at chunt@armorytrack.com.