FM scored 15 again; wins 5th straight

By Christopher Hunt

PAWLING – The girls said they never gave it much thought. The coach insisted that perfection, or at least a perfect score, was never a goal.

But Fayetteville-Manilus, the country’s top-ranked team, still posted a perfect 15 points to win its fifth straight Class AA state title at the NYSPHSAA championships Saturday at Lakeside Park in Pawling. F-M didn’t sweep top five places the way it did a year ago but that might have been the only mistake the team made.

“We wanted to run a race that was representative of our potential,” head coach Bill Aris said. “I think we did that.”

Junior Christie Rutledge won her first individual state championship to pace F-M. Rutledge challenged the field to match her tempo early, crushed the hill in the middle of the course and poured it on in the ...