Trailblazing Trivia for 2016 |
The McQuaid AAA race featured some intense action as Liverpool won a tie-breaker with East Aurora, and Corning and Ithaca placed 3rd and 4th.. |
• -- Doubling up the Devils. East
Aurora and Blue Devil frontrunner Kenny Vasbinder won the Class B team
and individual championships in both 2014 and 2015, equaling the feat
of Fayetteville-Manlius and Bryce Millar in 2013 and 2014 in Class A.
What made East Aurora's feat absolutely unique was that the girls' team
mirrored the guys during the last two years with Sophia Tasselmyer
taking the girls' championship back-to-back for her twice-crowned team.
• -- The Friars are cooking. St. Anthony's won the Federation title for the second year in a row in 2015, equaling a feat they had also accomplished the last previous time they won, when the Friars took consecutive titles in 1991 and 1992.
• -- Twelve years gone. The last time the States meet was held in Section 4 and at Chenango Valley, this year's group of seniors were in kindergarten and Facebook was launched as a product for Harvard students. As the 7-year era of the 5-class XC system kicked off in 2004, Fayetteville-Manlius beat Lockport for the AAA title, Burnt Hills won over Kenmore East for A, Somers defeated Shoreham-Wading River for B, Sauquoit Valley beat Dansville in C, and Berne-Knox-Westerlo topped Tupper Lake in D. Walt Whitman sophomore Ryan Sheridan won the AA race and was the fastest guy at the meet, and New Paltz's Dan Busby was the 2nd fastest guy while winning the B race.
• -- State of the nation in 2004. Keeping with the Chanango Valley theme, back in 2004 the Fayetteville-Manlius guys were the lone NY boys team going to the inaugural NXN (then known as NTN), and the Hornets finished 2nd, two years before their girls won the first of their national championships. The girls teams out there were the heralded 2004 Saratoga team that easily won the first Nike Nationals, and Bethlehem who finished 13th. Back then it was possible for NY runners to run both in Portland and a week later in San Diego. Warwick Valley's Aislinn Ryan won the Foot Locker championship, and seven other NY runners mainly from Saratoga filled out most of the Northeast squad. Half of the guy's Foot Locker Northeast squad were from NY, and North Rockland's John Martinez was the top local guy in 14th after 2nd place finishes in both the States AA and Federation meets.
• -- Repeat, and repeat again. For the third year in a row, at least one team repeated a State championship. Both Pittsford Mendon in B and East Aurora in C repeated their 2014 titles, and there were also individual repeat champions in those two classes as Carthage's Noah Affolder and East Aurora's Kenny Vasbinder took consecutive crowns.
• -- Streaking to glory? In 2015 two
impressively long streaks stayed alive for teams that were not the sole
representatives in their area. In the AIS, Collegiate kept its
championship streak going among the NYC area independent schools by
winning its 19th straight championship. Warwick Valley is a slightly
newer entrant into the streaking fad as the Wildcats won their 18th
straight Section 9 title.