It's hard work posing for so many pictures. Credit: Hilton 2005 XC album

The champions flew home to Rochester the next day and were greeted by more than a hundred balloon-toting, sign-waving, window-thumping fans and the camera crews from all five local news stations. The victory tour included a parade through the school accompanied by the Cadet marching band as the assembled students cheered the conquering heroines. After a proud flight through the hallways, the winged Nike found a prominent home in a showcase near the school entrance. A "Hilton Girls Cross Country Day" event with celebratory t-shirts followed as the school let the runners know they were something special. Lest anyone on the team forget any of the year's great moments, super fans Blodgett and Bond created a Cadet memory album filled with photos, article clippings, week-by-week rankings, and assorted comments.

Life on the run does not slow down after a national championship. The Hilton runners were already in the midst of indoor track season when the return flight from Portland touched down in Rochester. Three months later, Allison Sawyer would be picking up a medal in the 1500m at the NY States at Cornell's Barton Hall, and Shelby Herman would finish 11th. After a strong all-around outdoor track season for Hilton, both Sawyer and Herman would also run in individual events at the States with Sawyer taking medals in the 2000m steeplechase and 3000m. Caroline Schultz and senior Becca Ritchie would join Sawyer and Herman to win a medal in the 4x800m relay. Amanda Griggs continued to be dogged with foot issues in her senior track seasons, and though she went undefeated in six races in April of 2006, she finally had to shut it down early after developing stress fractures in the feet again. After graduation, she would run for a few years with the University of Northern Arizona Lumberjacks.

The album of Hilton's 2005 season created by fans Seth Blodgett and Lacey Bond holds a lot of unforgettable memories. Credit: Hilton 2005 XC album

When the 2006 XC season rolled around, Hilton was in the new position of being the preseason favorite. With all of 2005's top 5 except Griggs returning, the main question seemed to be who would fill the number 5 slot? Saratoga had Hannah Davidson running solo at top with the graduation of Lindsey Ferguson, but it seemed probable that the top two teams from 2005 Nationals would again be the premier NY powers going into States and beyond. Early in the year, the NY teams were not as dominating as in the past, and it may partly have been due to a deeper understanding of how the long season can wear on a team in late November and December. Midlothian of Virginia pulled a shocker at the Manhattan Invitational by beating both Saratoga and Hilton in the Eastern States race, and a fast-developing Fayetteville-Manlius team was just a little ways behind the NY powers in 6th. Two months later at the NY state championship, all three teams had made huge progress, and Tully Runners projected another 1 point win for Saratoga over Hilton, with FM a little ways back. But in a result that heralded a changing of the guards, the order was switched with FM scoring a 67-71-73 win over Hilton and Saratoga. Though the Cadets again just missed on winning the states championship, Allison Sawyer rose to the top of the the NY ranks by posting the best time at States to give Hilton its first 1st at States. Caroline Schultz also moved up with a 5th place finish.

Hilton's Allison Sawyer runs to the State championship in 2006. Credit: Tully Runners

 In a three-way battle for only one guaranteed spot for a NY team for two NE region bids at Nationals, Hilton did go to Federations in 2006. Again Fayetteville-Manlius overturned the prerace projections and ran to a more convincing victory at Feds. While Saratoga's Hannah Davidson won the race, she could not lead her team past Hilton for 2nd as the Cadets' Sawyer and Schultz finished 6th and 12th. A second-straight 3rd place for Saratoga turned out to be deadly for the 2004 national champ as the seemingly unthinkable happened. FM and Colt's Neck, NJ took the guaranteed NE bids and Hilton received one of the four at-large bids that the Nike selection committee decided to spread between four different regions in certainly the most controversial and least thought out decision ever made at any level of XC. Needless to say, only Hilton of the four at-large teams would excel and even finish in the top half of the teams, and two of the selections would finish near the back.

 

Hilton finished a strong 2nd behind Fayetteville-Manlius at the 2006 NTN. From left: Shelby Herman, Allison Sawyer, Caroline Schultz, Ashley Jones, Sarah Ritchie. Credit: DyeStat

 

 Hilton's second trip to Nationals would not be quite as glorious as the first, as Fayetteville-Manlius was now firmly on the path that would take it to 7 national championships between 2006 and 2012. But most teams would be reasonably happy to finish 2nd among all the teams in the nation, and the Cadets earned another hard-fought prize by holding off a Southlake Carroll, TX team by 9 points to get the runner-up trophy. Sawyer finished 4th, Schultz took 7th, and Shelby Herman, Sarah Ritchie, and Ashley Jones formed the rest of a top 5 that with Lindsey Crocetti and Chelsea Abrams pushed Hilton past the prerace projections. A week later, Schultz and Sawyer placed 32nd and 33rd at Footlocker Nationals following up on an earlier dramatic qualification for the event when an 11th-place Schultz eventually replaced a runner who was injured and crawled across the finish line just ahead of the Cadet.

 

Hilton's banner year is a big inspiration for runners of the following years. Credit: Section 1 - NYS Running

 2006 was the last trip to Nationals for Hilton as the graduation of Sawyer and Schultz at the end of the year left the team without its top base of power running. But Hilton would enjoy one last year at the top of Section 5 in 2007 as seniors Shelby Herman and Ashley Jones joined by junior Sarah Ritchie formed a strong enough top three to hold off Fairport and earn the Cadets' fourth straight trip to States.

Hilton's year on the throne marks the dividing line between the eras of two national superpowers, Saratoga and Fayetteville-Manlius. The legacy of the Hilton 2005 team still resonates in many ways today, and the team was at the forefront of a number of changes that would hit NY XC in the following years. The idea that a top team can go full out only a small number of times during a season has become pretty well ingrained, and high ranked squads such as Fayetteville-Manlius and Saratoga limit their schedule for their top group to a few picked showcases on the way to Nationals. Many teams also try to prepare for big meets by practicing on courses similar to the upcoming host site, even if they don't stack hay bales and create big muddy sinkholes like the Hilton testing grounds. Whether the Federation Meet is truly relevant anymore has also become a big talking point simply because many of the best teams in the state are not going to it anymore. The many changes that have taken the NTN to the NXN are not specifically related to Hilton, but after 2005 and 2006, NY would always have at least three girls teams at Portland. Many NY fans would argue that the incredible record built by FM, Saratoga, Hilton and the rest of the NY teams would call for far more state powers being selected for the mud baths.

 

 

Assistant Coach Amanda Griggs keeps an eye on the Hilton team at the 2012 NXN-NY regional meet at Bowdoin Park. Credit: Section 1 NYS Running

Perhaps Hilton's biggest mark of influence can be seen in the rise of the local Section 5 big-school teams in recent years that have been sitting near the top of the state rankings. Canandaigua, Rush-Henrietta, and Penfield have all become annual powers, and a few other Section 5 schools are fielding top runners. It is no sin to covet thy neighbor's Nike trophy, and these schools want their own, though FM's insatiable appetite for showcase stuffers shows little sign of being appeased. And Hilton will also be there plugging to get back to the top, just like on a recent day at Bowdoin Park when taking a shot at it all was a Cadet squad watched over by a certain veteran of the 2005 NTN. Hope never dies, the fun keeps coming, and dreams run on and on.

Acknowledgments -- a tip of the cap in appreciation of XC's community of great people

Story Links -- a lot of old trails to explore