By Christopher Hunt
No one is saying that the Eastern States races at the Manhattan Invitational Saturday are the be-all, end-all of cross country races. But when you line up some of the best teams in the country, people expect sparks to fly.
Fayetteville-Manlius, the top-ranked girls team in the country certainly looks at it that way.
“We look at this race in and of itself as a mid-season checkpoint,” FM coach Bill Aris said. “We certainly want to go in and perform the best we can. Really, we want to give it the appropriate respect it deserves.”
The fact is that the Eastern States race at Manhattan at Van Cortlandt Park Saturday is the biggest, most competitive race that any of the teams involved will compete in that doesn’t have a championship attached to it. For many of the top teams in New York, like Fayetteville-Manlius and Burnt Hils-Ballston Lake, this race will be the first of the season where they race at full tilt and everyone will be watching.
“I think Manhattan is an excellence proving ground for the mind, body and spirit,” Aris said. “In some ways it’s even tougher than some of the championship races that we’ll be in. That’s in terms of the size of the field and the density of the competition.”
The race will give teams a preview of teams that they are likely to see later in the season at meets such as the New York State Federation championships and Nike Cross Country Nationals. Saratoga Springs, which finished second last year, will be in the race .They always field a strong squad. Lincoln Sudbury (Mass.), the top-ranked team in the Northeast region (New York is its own region) will also be competing, so is Midlothian of Virginia and Section 2’s Shenendehowa.
But despite all the things that FM has accomplished, Aris says the team walking in just like anyone else, knowing nothing they’ve accomplished before Saturday will help them win the race.
“The past means absolutely nothing to us,” he said. “By that I mean, any bull-eyes or targets is all based on our past success. We’re interested in defining ourselves this year. What we do this year is what we should be judged on.”
FM won handily at the McQuaid Invitational two weeks ago in a race that their top runner, Hannah Luber didn’t compete in. Luber won her invitational season debut at the Tully Invitational last Saturday, finishing the 3.1-mile course in 18:09.6.
Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake is also a team that hasn’t run at full strength yet this season. BHBL coach Shaun Zepf admitted that he held Meaghan Gregory back at McQuaid. His fourth and fifth runners, Rachael Cyrus and Rachel Stalker, have yet to race this season as well. The race Saturday can serve as a litmus test for them.
“We’re all really excited for this weekend,” Gregory said. “It’s a meet that we’ve never gone to. We race against some tough teams before so I think we know how to handle it. It’ll definitely give us an indication of where we are as a team.”
Gregory, Samantha Roecker and Molly Pezzulo have all run the course before. But it’ll be a new experience for the race of the team. In the end, Zepf said, the race will be about their effort.
“Our ultimate goal is to be the best that we can be at the end of the season,” he said. “If we do our best and we finish 10th or we do our best and finish second or third that’s fine too. This will be a test or us.”
Shenendehowa will be the top team in the boys Eastern States race. It’ll the first Eastern States race for boys, which has encouraged many of the top teams from around the country to enter. No one has picked favorites but the race is surely to be one of the best team battles anyone has seen at Van Cortlandt in a long time.
Reach Christopher Hunt at chunt@armorytrack.com.