By Christopher Hunt
WAPPINGERS FALLS – Fayetteville-Manilus keeps finding ways to show off how good they are.
First, the girls squad became the first team to ever score at perfect 15 at the New York State championship two weeks ago. Then they coasted to a win Saturday at the NXN New York Regional Championships at Bowdoin Park, despite an ailing Courtney Chapman.
“We got out well and we ran a team race,” coach Bill Aris said. “The important thing was to qualify and we did want to save something for nationals.”
F-M, the three-time defending nationals champs running as Manilus XC Club, won with 41 points. Kinetic RC (US #3 Saratoga Springs) finished second with 77 and Clifton Park TC (Shenendehowa) third with 117. Freshman Lillian Fanning led Fayetteville-Manilus in fifth overall, finishing in 18:44.2. Katie Sischo placed eighth in 18:52.4 with Molly Malone 11th in 18:57.1, MacKenzie Carter 17th in 19:11.3, Hannah Luber 18th in 19:13.3. It was the fifth time Saratoga qualified in the six years Nike has hosted a national championship.
Chapman, usually the Hornets’ No. 1 runner, visibly struggled through the race and finished 23rd in 19:20.9. Aris said that Chapman started to feel light-headed at the top of the hill, which is about midway through the race and shifted focus from racing to simply finishing the race. The team proved they could be dominant when they scored 15 points at the state meet. Assistant coach John Aris said they had no intention to attempt to repeat that performance but they weren’t expecting Chapman to struggle how she did.
“When you’re top kid is your sixth girl it says a lot about your team,” Aris said. “They’re willing to step in and get it done when they have to.”
Carter said she thought that Chapman would be healthy for NXN Nationals in Portland, Ore., next Saturday. But even if Chapman isn’t completely race-ready, the Hornets have proved that this team may be faster and deeper than the ones that won three straight national championships.
“This is what we’ve been waiting for all season,” said Carter, a senior who’s been a part of each national title. “We’re just excited for the end game.”
The race for the individual champion flew wide open with Chapman not a full strength and Cornwall’s Aisling Cuffe running at Foot Locker Northeast Regionals in Long Island (she won, breaking the course record at Sunken Meadow Park), and Shen sophomore Lizzie Predmore took advantage. Pittsford-Mendon’s Shaylyn Tuite led for nearly the entire race until Predmore pulled even with about 1,000 meters left with Queensbury twins Danielle and Brittany Winslow in tow.
For nearly a half-mile the two ran side-by-side until they disappeared behind the last search of trees that hid Predmore’s final surge from the crowd. The sophomore emerged into the home stretch expanding on a 20-meter lead. Predmore said she had been planning to make her move with a mile left but with the pace that Tuite was running, she decided to hang back, then crept on Tuite’s shoulder.
“She was putting in surges throughout the last 1,000,” Predmore said. “I just tried to stay with her and then I put in one final surge.”
Tuite never responded and Predmore ran away with her first major cross country title, even after missing a month of running between September and October with a stress reaction in her left leg.
“I’m really, really excited,” she said.
F-M continued its reign over New York in the boys race, winning the boys championship with its most convincing win of the season, finishing with 63 points. Burnt Hills (Deluge XC) finished second with 105 and North Rockland third with 114. There was a question as to whether the boys would even win the state meet two weeks ago, when the claimed the Class AA title by 14 points over North Rockland. Then they handily controlled the race at the regional meet with a 33-second 5-man compression Saturday.
Brendan Farrell led the way in sixth overall, finishing in 16:16.1. Paul Merriman placed 13th in 16:33.8, Mark McGurrin 21st in 16:47.0, Andrew Roache 23rd in 16:48.3 and Joe Hartnett 25th in 16:49.7.
The Hornets had become very familiar with adversity this season. First, their star, Alex Hatz underwent kidney surgery in August and never made it back to competing fully with the team. Then Roache and McGurrin had the flu entering the race at the state meet. Still, F-M remained the top-ranked team in the state throughout the season, held off North Rockland and the state meet and qualified for the national championships.
“Our guys really pulled together,” Farrell said. “We realized over the summer that we wouldn’t be at full strength but we knew we still needed five guys to run. … I knew all these guys could do it. Even without Alex we knew we had a top team, a team that was probably better than last year’s. I guess our team evolved.”
Farrell added that winning at the state meet, through the illnesses only added to the team’s confidence, especially Roache, who made a huge difference for the Hornets at states.
“Roache ran amazing at states and he’s confidence just grew so much,” Farrell said. “He did the same thing again today.”
Otis Ubriaco of Burnt Hills surprised most, including himself, coming up to win the individual title after it seemed that Chenango Valley’s Max Straneva had effectively broken the field . Straneva, true to form, held a grueling pace that stretched the field and punished the pack that tried to follow him. Ubriaco was buried far enough back that he wasn’t even sure what place he was in at the first mile marker. But over the last two miles Ubriaco chipped away at the chase pack behind Straneva and with a half-mile left, Ubriaco decided that needed to drop the group behind Straneva to secure a single point for Burnt Hills since Straneva was running without a team.
“But once I could passed those guys my legs just started going,” Ubriaco said. “The closer I got to Max I just got a little more confidence and a little more confidence. I could see our shadows running next to each other. When I passed him I couldn’t see his shadow anymore. That’s when I knew.”
Straneva’s pace had sucked the air out of the chase pack and presented an opportunity for Ubriaco to pounce. And once he pulled close enough, Ubriaco upped the tempo even more and Straneva couldn’t hold on. He fell to third while Honeye Falls-Lima’s Alex Dier, won shadowed Straneva for most of the race and dropped to sixth with 800 left, rebounded for second in 16:08.5.
Ubriaco won in 16:03.4. “I didn’t want it to come down to a kick,” he said. “I wanted to try to push the pace a little early (on the chase pack) to try to demoralize them a bit so they wouldn’t come back. I wasn’t even thinking about catching Max at first. … Max is a very strong racer. It worked out for me. He kind of broke a lot of guys ahead of me.”
Reach Christopher Hunt at chunt@armorytrack.com.
Saratoga Springs girls (Kinetic Running Club) placed 2nd to earn another trip to the NXN Championships in Portland, Ore. They truly are an amazing program.