The 2013 Queensbury States XC championship was one those rare upstate November classics when the weather was reasonably nice and the course condition was not of the kind that would make runners awake screaming from bad dreams in the years ahead. The meet even had a bit of the "Root, root, root for the home team, if they don't win it's a shame" quality to it as for the first time in 8 years the hosts claimed a title, winning the girls Class B race. And yes, the last previous time a home team had won a States title was at the 2005 Queensbury meet when the Spartan boys won Class A back in the 5-class era. For the third time in its history, Fayetteville-Manlius won the titles on both the boys and girls side in the biggest class.
Among the highlights on the boys side was a battle to the finish of the Class A race between FM's Bryce Millar, Northport's Mike Brannigan, and Rush Henrietta's Mickey Burke; Pittsford Mendon winning the second of four straight States titles while edging Corning in Class B; Holland Patent taking a close one over Susquehanna Valley in Class C; and Mount Academy getting a repeat title over Greenwich in Class D before getting booted up to Class C.
The girls Class B race saw Jessica Lawson win a States title as a Corning freshman with the Hawks moving down a class and losing to Queensbury by 6 points; Bronxville rolled to the last of its six straight championships in Class C; and Tully ended Maple Grove's 3-year streak in Class D, though the Red Dragons' Hope Pietrocarlo got the win.
Warwick Valley's Megan Reilly had sprinted to the finish at Elma Meadows in 2012 to win her first title as a freshman in Class A, and at Queensbury she pulled away from Penfield senior Katie Lembo for a repeat crown. Lembo was the only senior among the top seven runners, as she was followed in by Elmira's Abbey Wheeler, Ursuline's Anna Flynn, and Rush-Henrietta's Alex Cooper. Three of the next four runners in were from FM's winning pack, as Annika Avery, Jenna Farrell and Jessica Howe powered the Hornets to their eighth straight title, though FM's seven-year winning streak at NXN would end a month later. Saratoga's string of ten straight runner-up finishes from 2006 to 2015 grew to eight at Queensbury, but the Blue Streaks had three 8th graders in their top five to help ensure their streak of NXN appearances would continue for a few more years.
