Suburban Sees Stranger Things As Shen And Burnt Hills Hit Uncharted Territory

The Suburban Council is typically the strongest league meet in the land, and the 2017 rendition didn't disappoint.  Despite minor course changes, Kelsey Chmiel (Saratoga) still ran away from the field, putting in another Top 5 All-Time SPAC performance with her 16:45.52 winning mark.  But it was the team competition that saw a changing of the guard, both with State and National implications.

Shen Takes First Title In The New Millennium

It would hard to be considered a drought, but Shenendehowa has had a hard time grabbing a local title in Section 2.  Despite being Nationally Ranked year in and year out, Shen has fallen to Saratoga at Suburban's every year heading back to 2000, and before even that.  In fact, the only year Saratoga didn't win Suburban's was in 2008, when Burnt Hills took the title, preceding a qualifying run for NXN later that season.

That all changed on Wednesday, as Shen came away with an 11-point victory over the Blue Streaks.  Saratoga still gave them a good run, with a revitalized squad.  Both teams put three scorers in the Top 10 individuals overall.  Coming through three scorers, Shen only had a two point advantage.  But it was the next two that sealed the deal.

The two teams will face off again next week, as Shen aims for the even bigger prize.  A sectional win would give them their fourth ever trip to the State Meet as a team, something that hasn't been done since 1996.  With scoring so close, it's anyone's race.

After knocking on the door of a breakthrough all season, the boys of Burnt Hills put one up for the record books at Suburban's.  They become only the seventh team to get an entire scoring 5 under 16mins, bumping them all the way up to #2 All-Time for the 5-Man Average.  The last time Burnt Hills won the Suburban Council was in 2009, when their boys would later on qualify to head out to NXN.  Things bode well for an all-underclassmen team, and with Sectionals still on the docket for next week, and the extra added days of rest to the schedule this year, that record could still go down.  Burnt Hills moves up to US #2 with their ratings from the day, and with the State Meet Course, and the NXN Course being of similar flat terrain, this train has only started rolling if they're consistent.

Burnt Hills  (2017)       (15:19.15  76:35.72)
========================================
  1      1  AIDAN GILLOOLEY      11    15:01.6
  2      2  TYLER BERG           11    15:01.8
  3      4  EVAN BRENNAN         11    15:15.5
  4      6  DAVID METACARPA      10    15:16.9
  5     19  NICK HUNZIKER        11    15:59.9
  6   ( 25) MIKE MESSERE         12    16:11.0
  7   ( 27) KEVIN BOARD          10    16:13.6

vs.

SHENENDEHOWA  (2006)        (15:17.6  76:27.7)
========================================
  1      1  STEVE MURDOCK        12    14:36.5
  2      3  ADAM QUINN           12    15:19.0
  3      4  ZACK PREDMORE        12    15:19.3
  4      6  ZAC SURIANO          11    15:27.2
  5     10  MIKE DANAHER         10    15:45.9
  6   ( 15) TOM SOELLER          12    16:04.1
  7   ( 18) MIKE WILBUR          12    16:10.4