By Christopher Hunt
When the Class AA race ended at the state championships last week, Shenendehowa teammates and coaches just looked at each other unsure. They struggled their shoulders then waited nervously see if they’d beat Fayetteville-Manillus.
It was hard to tell with all the different colored t-shirts athletes wear at the state meet. All the individuals that don’t count toward team scoring can make it difficult to keep score just by eye-balling the race. So they waited.
In the end they had won comfortably – 19 points. But the lesson was the important thing.
“I already talked to them about not taking anything for granted,” Shen coach Mark Thompson said.
Shen is already the favorite to repeat as New York State Federation champs Saturday at Bowdoin Park in Wappingers Falls. Fayetteville-Manilus boys and girls teams have opted to sit out the federation meet which in theory furthers Shenendehowa’s shot at the title. Even without FM, there is still Queensbury to contend with – which placed second last year – plus Shoreham-Wading River and Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake.
“We’re going to go in there like every other race,” Thompson said. “Any given day you don’t know who is going to run well.”
The quantity of runners alone make it difficult to judge where a team stands during the race, not to mention the amount of talented runners which doesn’t allow for the race to really stretch out. For Shen, it’s another step for a team pegged to be the best in the state all season.
“This team this year right from the beginning has had nothing but high expectations,” Thompson said. “Not from me, but from the media, the polls .Everything. They, at first, were feeling a lot of pressure. I really tried to downplay that. We are going to take it one meet at a time, day by day, meet by meet. I really don’t like to look ahead.”
And Shen also has a chance to claim the individual title with senior transfer Alex Leuchanka having the best cross country season of his high school career. He missed running down FM’s Alex Hatz and lost the Class AA state title by two-tenths of a second. FM and Hatz are not in the race, neither is Chris Stogsdill of Marcellus of Hamburg’s Joe Whelan. But he’ll still have his hands full with Alex Deir of Honeoye Falls-Lima, Bobby Andrews of Shoreham-Wading River, Pearl River’s Mike Hickey and Max Straneva of Chenango Valley.
“I’m pretty much going to do what I did last time (at the state meet),” Leuchanka said. “I really just want to stay up there, stay with the pack. Since the last part is flat, I just plan to hammer it.”
It’s the strategy that won him the Section 2 Class AA title and nearly brought home a state championship for the senior who transferred from Warwick Valley this year. With a different training style, Leuchanka said he’s feeling faster and fresher and is enjoying his best season.
“I can’t believe how I’m running,” he said.
The girls race looks be much closer between Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake and Saratoga Springs. At both the Section 2 championships and at the state meet Saratoga Springs edged Burnt Hills by a combined two points (Saratoga won on a tie-breaker in the merge at the sectional meet and two points at states).
“I expect it’s going to be close just like that,” Burnt Hills coach Shaun Zepf said. “I feel the kids are running great now. Seeing that at states we ran a pretty tactical race and sort of tactical in a tough race at sections, I’m excited with the team right now.”
Zepf said that the girls’ best races are ahead of them and the way they’ve been running the last two weeks are just the start of that. But between Saratoga Springs and Queensbury in the race they are sure the competition will be tight and at the end no one will be calling this race “tactical” which really means conservative.
“In a race like this you have to go out hard and finish harder,” he said. “You have to go out hard but at the same time you can’t go out on a suicide mission. This course is great for us. The harder the course, the better for us. That’s how we feel. So we’re hoping for a rainy, muddy, tough course out there.”
Saratoga has proved to be stronger on the back end but Burnt Hills’ fourth and fifth runners have also shown some toughness.
“You can’t mistake, especially in a meet this big, how strong your four and five are,” Zepf said. “You can go 1-2-3 in this race and still get blown away.”
Reach Christopher Hunt at chunt@armorytrack.com.
Chris’s Predictions
Boys
Team: Shenendehowa is the best team in the field. Burnt Hills and Queensbury would be the next in line and the most interesting battle to me would be how Burnt Hills, Queensbury and Shoreham-Wading River finish among each other. I think Shen is only starting to show how good they are going to be by season’s end.
Individual: I’m going with Shen’s Alex Leuchanka. I don’t think he’s the favorite in this race. That’s probably HFL’s Alex Deir. But if Leuchanka can hold tight through the hills and stay in close contact into the last half mile, I really don’t think anyone can match his kick. Any way this race plays out, the last 600 meters are going to be exciting.
Girls
Team: It’s Burnt Hills for me. Even in a race where they backed off, they were still just two points behind Saratoga Springs in the merge. I think this will be close and it’ll be a three team race with Burnt Hills, Saratoga Springs and Queensbury, but I think Burnt Hills is the best team here on a course that suits them well. If their four and five runners have good races it’ll be hard to beat them.
Individual: So I’ve made a decision. I don’t think I’m ever picking against Roslyn’s Emily Lipari again. She has the best leg speed of any distance runner in the state. She really is pretty fresh because her season essentially started at the state meet. The race is going to be close until the end, but it’s at the end when you’ll see Lipari switching gears and tearing toward the finish line in full flight. I say Lipari then Cornwall’s Aisling Cuffe, Queensbury’s Danielle Winslow then Sam Roecker from Burnt Hills. If I’m wrong go ahead and tell me so in the comment box below.