Liz Lucason States Trivia Challenge
The storied career of Liz Lucason at the States meets started with an unbelievable 4th place in the 2016 Chenango Valley state championship as a 7th grader in Class B and also included a 5th place at the 2018 States B race before her Camden team dropped down to Class C and she captured the title there at Plattsburgh in 2019. Two very notable points can be pulled from this record for fantastically fun trivia questions.
- Question #1: Due to last year's suspension of the States meet, Lucason is the only returning champion from the Plattsburgh States. Last year Tully's Brooke Rauber in Class D and Skaneateles's Caleb Bender in boys Class C missed their chances for a repeat as seniors. It has been a very, very, very long time since there was no repeat champ at consecutive States meets. When was the last time there was such a void?
And:
- Question #2: Liz will be vying to be only the second girl to capture a top-5 place at States on the same course. This year at Chenango Valley marks the first time that the state championship will be held on the same course five years apart. In recent decades the site for the state championship has been rotated among the 11 sections and no runner even among the girls had a chance for a repeat visit to a course. Of the seven 7th grade girls who ran at the 2016 CV meet, five of them along with Lucason including East Aurora's Megan McLaughlin (23rd in B), Burnt Hills' Emily Berg (56th in B), Waterloo's Chance Rice Porter (44th in C), and South Lewis's Lexi Bernard (12th in D) are still active in XC and are expected back at States as seniors. A long time ago, the state championship did sometimes revisit the same course at a close enough interval to allow a runner to place in the top 5 at both meets.
The question is, 40 years ago States was held at Malone again after being run there in 1977. Who was the girl who not only had top-5 performances there four years apart but who came away with the championship both times?
Answer to Q1: The last year there has been no repeat champion on either the boys' or girls' sides at States was at the beginning of the millennium at the 2000 SUNY Utica States. Orchard Park's Peter Meindl won Class A and Pearl River's Brendan Fennell won in Class C, and their repeats in 2001 have started a streak that has run through to 2019 and included the names of a few national champions. The girls alone have run up long streaks with repeaters that stretches from 2005 to 2011 and then from 2013 to 2019. The one break year in 2012 was when Mary Cain was moved to an unattached status and was unable to defend her Class C title in her junior year.
Answer to Q2: Stony Brook's Laura Whitney won the first of her States titles in the 1977 Class B race at Malone and then four years later there captured her fourth win in five tries when she took the Class C crown. With their shorter span at the top of the leader boards, guys have a much tougher time pulling off Whitney's trick of high States places on the same course, but in the 1950s the meet was held many times in consecutive years in Schenectady or at Colgate University. The last guy to take top-5 spots on the same States course was 1965 boys Class C champ Ray Velez of Highland Falls who finished 3rd on the same Bear Mountain course two years before in 1963. The 1965 2nd place C finisher was Mickey Donnelly of Valhalla who was 10th in 1963. Girls of course were not allowed to make an appearance at States until a decade later in 1975, so Whitney is the only girl to have scored a top-5 place on the same course twice.