By Christopher Hunt
NEW YORK – At nearly every cross country practice around the country there are coaches preaching to kids about pack-running, praying that they work off each other like they are tied together by some invisible rope. Pretty much the way the Bronxville girls looked.
The Broncos scored 25 points to win the girls varsity race at the DeWitt Clinton Invitational at Van Cortlandt Park. They packed five runners in, taking the third through seventh places, all within 27 seconds of each other.
“It was great,” said Henrietta Miers, who led the team in third in 20:27.02. “We stayed together most of the time. We’re really coming together as a team.”
Tori Flannery followed Miers in fourth in 20:28.30. Eighth-grader Amelia Phillips finished fifth in 20:29.84, Caitlin Hudson sixth in 20:43.26 and Meredith Rizzo, another eighth-grader running her first varsity race, seventh in 20:54.07. At much as the pack-running is preferable in theory, Bronxville coach Jim Mitchell wants the team to be more aggressive individually.
“We’re still a little too much together,” he said. “I’d like to see them a little bit quicker. It might be fine in that they are coming together. But at some point they are going to have to break up and go for it on their own.”
The girls said that the weekend would be perfect if Miers ran well. Miers won Ms. Bronco at Bronxville’s homecoming rally with 6-4, 205-pound football player John Shkreli. They participated in a bunch of games from relay races to dance competitions.
“It was the greatest thing I’ve ever seen,” said Oliva Bruton, who finished 22nd for Bronxville.
Bronxville is a young squad full of veterans and are favored for a state championship in Class C this year. Kameron George of Transit Tech is quite the opposite. His race at Van Cortlandt Saturday was the senior’s first-ever 3.1-mile race. Transit coach Sydney McIntosh plucked him from a gym class last year and he made the spring state meet in the 3,200.
He had the smarts to stay conservative in the race. George followed Paul Gilhuley of Bishop Ford and Danny Stiefvater of Sherando (Va.) for the entire race until he switched gears after the last downhill before the final stretch. He won in 16:33.30.
George’s win was even more impressive because Transit didn’t show up with a full team – they race with three – and McIntosh couldn’t make the trip. The coach initially wanted to pull his team out of the meet but George wanted to run.
“I didn’t really know what to do so I just tried to stay with the guys in the front,” George said. “I think I learned next time that I can run at my own pace.”
Sherando won the boys team title with 74 points. Iona Prep finished second with 82. Sean Halpin led the Gaels in fifth place, finishing in 17:08.22.
“They’re coming,” Iona Prep and Ursuline coach Jan Mitchell said. “We have a long way to go. I think they’ll be ready by the (Westchester) county meet.
Katie Sullivan of Ursuline won the individual title in the girls race in 19:38.71. Sullivan broke free from the field midway through the race and once she stopped hearing spikes gripping the concrete and gravel she knew she had control of the race. Sullivan credited a summer of two-a-day runs and increased mileage to feeling stronger than she ever has.
“I felt pretty good at the beginning,” she said. “I really tried to work the hills. I feel a lot stronger than last year at this time. I just want to maintain my strength and keep getting quicker.”
Reach Christopher Hunt at chunt@armorytrack.com.