By Christopher Hunt
For a year the Fayetteville-Manilus boys team had to answer repeated questions about what they didn’t have, or who. They had a season to run and everyone else could worry that they housed the best runner in the state who wasn’t healthy enough to race.
Alex Hatz, the national mile champ, never ran a race of consequence last fall. F-M, forced to start the post-Hatz cross country era early, made an improbable run for the Class AA state championship. This year’s squad takes another hit, losing Paul Merriman (UMass), Joe Hartnett (Fordham) and Brendan Farrell (Iona College), who stepped up as the leader last year.
“We never had Alex to lose,” head coach Bil Aris said. “The guys that are here, these guys are all vets. I think we’re going to be better than some people think we are and maybe not as good as some others might think.”
What Aris’ team has proved though, especially last year, is that they are both tough and race saavy. Seniors Mark McGurrin and Andrew Roache both caught the flu before the state meet last year, both ran anyway, and where a large reason that F-M swiped the state title from North Rockland, which was the hottest team in New York at the time.
McGurrin and Roache will be charged with leading the team this season with returners Owen Strong, Ben Thomas and Andrew Veilleux. Pre-season prognosticators have F-M close to equal to Warwick Valley and Shaker as the best team in the state. Aris admitted that some of that might have to do with F-M’s tradition and reputation even more than facts.
Much like the girls squad, the F-M boys are a team in transition but full of experience, which mirrors Warwick and Shaker.
“I think our team is pretty intelligent,” Aris said. “They have a healthy respect for the competition. I think our guys, much like yours truly, we focus on our process. We can’t look at how we fair against (Warwick and Shaker) now. It doesn’t matter now. But for us, there’s a marked improvement all across the board.”
Reach Christopher Hunt at chunt@armorytrack.com