McQuaid Invitiational

Once again we are competing in the McQuaid Invitational. It is the 46th annual edition of this meet (Coach Lyons ran in the 15th and 16th annual events). This year there are about 218 other teams; this means a full day of racing. The full schedule is available here, but the races we've entered include:

1:03 Race #14 Sophomore Boys (All Schools)
2:26 Race #18 Girls Varsity "B" (a J.V. race) for Medium and Large schools
3:58 Race #23 Girls Seeded Varsity AAA (Large schools)
4:22 Race #24 Boys Seeded Varsity AAA (Large schools)
4:45 Race #25 Boys Varsity "B" (A J.V. race) for Large schools

Also: 5:10 Race #26 Alumni Open Race. Same 3-mile course. Post entries accepted. Any takers from our fans?

The Sophomore race will also include our Freshmen.

Let's hope for good weather and fast times!

Good For Them

While it was sad to lose two runners to other sports this fall, it is nice to see that they have had some success:

From today's D&C...
Webster Schroeder 1, Webster Thomas 0
Senior Ben Ftau scored midway through the second half for Schroeder (6-0-2). Thomas is 5-2.

And from last Thursday's paper...
Field hockey
Webster Schroeder 4, East Irondequoit Eastridge 0
Becka Irwin had two goals for Webster Schroeder (3-3-1).

Tomorrow's Scouting Report...

...is available on the Google Groups site. Go see how we stack up against Canandaigua, Irondequoit and Victor.

And yesterday I neglected to include links to the results from the Green Mountain Lake Invitational (2010 State Meet course) and the Baldwinsville Invitational (R-H looked dominating).

Fast Times at EA High

So, it was off to the East Aurora Invitational for most of the team this weekend. The squad took advantage of the 3 mile course (rather than 5K), and the relatively flat and fast terrain, to put up some very impressive PRs. All 21 boys and 9 girls that ran in EA PR'd, even adjusting for 3 miles vs. 5K. In fact, the average PR was by over a minute!

The most impressive performance of the day came from Shaylyn Tuite of Mendon, who clocked an incredible 16:38 in the large school Girls race, shattering a very fast course record. The time would have been good for 25th in the large school Boys race (and 5th in the small school Boys), and 4th on the Mendon boys team.

Complete results are available here.

And a bunch of photos are available from the Section VI Runs web site.

Around the League

Basil Marella

R-H coasted thru this meet. Their boys still managed to go 4-0, but their girls can't go easy and win. Irondequoit girls scored a nice 25-30 win over Athena. The race of the day was the Athena boys grabbing a 28-28 win over Irondequoit. Yes, Athena's sixth man was the deciding factor - he beat Irondeqoit's 5th man by 5 seconds to give a displacement point to Irondequoit and win the 6th man tiebreaker.

Harris Whalen

Mendon's 11th girl was 17th in the race, as they dominated the meet, overshadowing Schroeder's 3-1 day. The boys side is where the excitement was, with Mendon pulling out a 27-28 win over Schroeder, thanks to some help from poor flag placement by the Schroeder coaching staff. Brockport's top 2 guys looked good, but their 5th man ran over 21 minutes on the tough course (especially for youngsters).

Parma Park

Hilton had some real problems on their "home" course. The boys are still missing Campbell and T. Eustance, and lost to Victor 27-28, with Z. Eustance just 2 seconds away from pulling out the win. Their girls lost to a Penfield team that looks poised to challenge Fairport for the Sectional title (Leila Mantilla is now a serious XC runner) and to a decent, but not outstanding, Victor team. And the hidden race of the day was the Gates boys edging Penfield, 27-28.

Seneca Park

The most boring meet of the day was the boys meet at Seneca. The dominoes fell like this: Sutherland (wow they come in quick - 6 in 33 seconds) 20, Brighton 39; Brighton 16, HF-L (minus Hoose) 46; HF-L 20, Canandaigua 40; Canandaigua 15, Eastridge 50. No suspense there.

The girls race could have been interesting, but Canandaigua took the day off after losing to Mendon last week (and ahead of their trip to the state meet course in Pawling this coming weekend), so it was an easy win for HF-L and Sutherland also came out on top of Canandaigua with an impressive performance (5th girl in 21:20).

Northampton Park

The Thomas boys had an easy day, as Jared, Cole and Tim coasted to 1-2-3 overall, securing the meet.

On the girls side, it was Fairport that went 1-2-3 overall, although Thomas did have Christina Colon back in action and it looks like she made things interesting.

So Close

The boys took to the Harris Whalen course yesterday to face Brockport, Churchville-Chili, Spencerport and Section V's 3rd-ranked (and 8th in the state in Class A) Pittsford Mendon. With Brockport's lack of depth, this quickly became strictly a Schroeder-Mendon battle. It was close the whole way with Zeccola chasing AJ and Mendon's main pack not too far behind Geoff, ahead of Schroeder's group of 4. As the runners emerged from the woods for the last time, it was really interesting, as Mendon's 5th runner had dropped back and Justin was rapidly closing on their 2-4. As Justin made his move and passed Mendon's 2 & 3, Mendon's 5th made a move and got by Will and Joe. Unfortunately, at the penultimate turn, which was marked, ummm... ambiguously, Justin cut too tight and wound up on the wrong side of the fence, allowing two Mendon runners to get back ahead of him. A valiant effort down the final straight (AJ-esque, in fact) was enough to split the runners, and now the race came down to a battle of Schroeder's 4th man vs Mendon's 5th man, with a final sprint deciding the meet in Mendon's favor, 27-28.

This was a very good performance for the boys team, coming off a hard race on Saturday to face a rested Mendon team on a warm day, and one of the most exciting XC dual meet finishes that I have seen in my 44 years as a fan, runner, fan again and coach!

The girls notched 3 victories on the day, losing only to Mendon and holding off Churchville, who made a late charge to make the meet close. The girls seemed to be more affected by the heat and hills than the boys, as only one girl beat their computer-predicted time. But it wasn't just our girls, as even Shaylyn Tuite was 46 seconds slower than a week ago on the same course.

You Go Girls!

The girls were rewarded for their performance on Saturday, not only with a 4th place trophy, but an appearance in the 2010 debut of the Section V XC rankings! The girls have been ranked 7th by a panel of highly respected coaches: Coach Szczepanik (Hilton), Coach Erwin (Sutherland), Coach Gardner (HFL), Coach Henessey (Penfield) and Coach Johnson (Wayne), here are the rankings, according to a posting at http://sectionv.talksback.com:

1 Pittsford Mendon (A) 50 (5 – 1st place votes)
2 Canandaigua (A) 44
3 Honeoye Falls-Lima(A) 39
4 Penfield (AA) 32
5 Rush Henrietta (AA) 28
6 Fairport (AA) 26
7 Webster Schroeder (AA) 21
8 Victor (A) 11
9 Pittsford Sutherland (A) 10
10 Webster Thomas (AA) 6
Also receiving votes: Brighton (A), Mercy (A) and Wayne (B)

My ballot would not be significantly different, although Fairport should probably be 2nd right now, despite their 5th girl being back a bit in Week 1. And I would have slotted Thomas and Sutherland ahead of Schroeder at this point.

The boys ranking is as follows:
1 McQuaid (A) 48 (3 – 1st place votes)
2 Rush Henrietta (AA) 47 (2 – 1st place votes)
3 Pittsford Mendon (A) 33
4(tie) Brighton (A) 25
4(tie) Hilton (AA) 25
6 Wayne (B) 24
7 Pittsford Sutherland (A) 23
8 Webster Schroeder (AA) 21
9 Honeoye Falls-Lima (A) 16
10 Brockport (AA) 7
Also receiving votes: Irondequoit (A), Webster Thomas (AA)

The battle for the top should remain very close all year. And clearly the positions from 4-9 were split across the ballots. I would have placed Brighton and Sutherland ahead of Mendon, and moved Wayne down below HF-L. Thomas should clearly be in the mix, right behind Schroeder, with Brockport dropping off until they improve their 5th position (19:42 at Mendon W and 19:24 at GCC).

Cougar Results

The results from today's invitational are up at Yen Timing. Here is the link to the overall results. They also have the boys merged results and the girls merged results.

Congrats to the boys for capturing 2nd place overall, behind an awesome McQuaid team. Our boys averaged almost 2 minutes faster than last year at this race (for the 8 that ran both years). Having run against R-H and McQuaid in the same week, I think it's safe to say it will be an epic battle if they meet at the McQuaid invite in two weeks. McQuaid has the incredible 1-2 punch, with their 3-4-5 pack just under a minute back, while R-H all finish close (14 seconds 1-4 at West Seneca today, with Colby and Nick back just a bit).

And what can we say about the girls? 18th place at the Cougar Invite last year; 4th place this year! Annelise, Alaina and Sarah all had major breakthroughs.

Cougar Invitational Information

We're off the the Cougar Invitational at Genesee Community College tomorrow. The bus leaves at 10AM! Information is available here. In addition to the $150 they are charging the school for entry, they may be charging $5 PER CAR for parking at the college. There is no street parking available in the immediate vicinity of the college.

Sadly, Monroe County administrators have taken it upon themselves to limit XC teams to 12 meets per team (up to and including Counties). The New York State rule is 16. Since we have 13 meets on our schedule, our JV team and Varsity team each had to drop one meet. Our Varsity team dropped the Early Season Scramble; the JV team dropped the Cougar Invitational, so we will only be entered in the Varsity races tomorrow.

The JV runners MUST still attend the meet. Our JV practice will be held at the course, which is used for the Sectional race (most likely for the next several years), and is the current planned course for the State Meet in 2012.

Order of Races (TIMES ARE APPROXIMATE)
10:00 Girls Varsity Class D/DD
10:30 Boys Varsity Class D/DD
11:00 Girls JV Class D/DD/C/B
11:30 Boys JV Class D/DD/C/B
12:00 Modified Girls
12:15 Modified Boys
12:30 Girls Varsity Class B/C
1:00 Boys Varsity Class B/C
1:30 Girls JV Class A/AA
2:00 Boys JV Class A/AA
2:30 Girls Varsity Class A/AA
3:00 Boys Varsity Class A/AA

Around the League

Tuesday was opening day for Monroe County XC. Were there any surprises? Yep! Let's look at some of the big and little surprises.

Black Creek

Girls:
Thomas (without Christina?) edged Sutherland 26-29 and it was closer than the score indicates; Shavonna was 2 and 3 seconds ahead of Sutherland’s 2 and 3 girls and Crocetti was 3 and 6 seconds ahead of 4 and 5.

Boys:
Sutherland even better than expected (4 within 17 seconds of Jared, 1-8 gap 74 seconds)
Thomas upset Victor, but no MJ Erb and Reid was 2 minutes slower than at Midlakes

Basil Marella

Girls:
HF-L had a very solid top 3, but needs help to contend in the very tough Class A race. Griffin, an 8th grader from RH almost took the race, but didn't have the last 400m in her.

Boys:
R-H even stronger with the addition of Nick Watson and Mickey Burke (but no Colby yet); Schroeder upset HF-L, 19-36. AJ ran away from Kozyra late, for the win.


Harris Whalen

Girls:
Early chance to see Canandaigua vs Mendon (Preseason #1 & #2 in Monroe County, #10 and #12 in NY State) plus Hilton

Shaylyn Tuite ran 1:15 faster than any girl at Harris Whalen since at least 2005 and led Mendon to a convincing 21-40 win. Hilton didn't bother running 4 of the top 5 expected returnees (ducking the top teams early?) and Athena upended them, 26-29

Boys:
Mendon beat Hilton (but they were missing Zach Eustance and Campbell). Batavia was supposed to be respectable, but did not have 3 of their top 4 potential returnees

Mendon East

Girls:
Fairport easily – picking up a 9th grader to add to their 4 fast returnees; Gates missing Farmer again is very weak

Boys:
Not much expected here, but Irondequoit looked good – 4 in 30 seconds; 5 in 51.

Mendon West

Girls:
Penfield easily as expected, but the surprise was just how fast Mantilla ran, tying the best time on the course since 2005, held by Tuite.

Boys:

Brighton looked awfully good, led by Smolensky making a strong bid for top Monroe County runner and 4 others within 1:10. Brockport has two outstanding runners, but their 5th man was a shocking 3:24 back.

A Nice Start!

So, the league schedule opened up with a surprising 3-1 start for the Boys and an even more surprising performance by the Girls (although it couldn't change the 2-2 outcome for the team).

The boys race started out to form with a boatload of R-H runners in the lead pack with a handful of HF-L kids plus AJ and Geoff. Even approaching the two mile mark, HF-L seemed to have things safely in hand, but a very nice last mile by Justin M, John W and Joe M put them all past HF-L's second man, FTW. The 19 runners who also did the Scramble last Thursday improved by an average of 17 seconds, for a very nice team effort. And while the 1-5 and 1-7 spreads will need to improve further, they were just 1:20 and 1:49, respectively, which allowed the top 7 to all place in the top 8 Schroeder times at Basil Marella. AJ's winning time was 48 seconds ahead of John Hohl's school record.

On the girls' side, Val and Amanda went out at the tail end of a big pack of HF-L and R-H runners. They eventually moved their way up and Val's two-part kick earned her 5th place in a fast 20:00, with Amanda just behind in 7th (20:06). Both were well under Ashley Cocuzzi's school record of 20:37. The top 5 girls all ran strong, with Natalie's big finish making the spread just 2:18 - only McQuaid last year (2:16) had a smaller spread with Val in the race. And Sarah and Katie held on to give us 7 of the top 22 places, which is a great team effort against HF-L and R-H. The girls' improvement over last week's Scramble averaged 1:07 for the 7 girls who ran both races.

Monroe County XC - 2010 Girls Individual Preview

Here are the top 25 (+1) returning girls in Monroe County, based solely on last year's XC performances. No one is close to Shaylyn Tuite at this point. The rest of the top 10 is nearly interchangeable, although TullyRunners gives the edge to Katie Lembo, who kept getting better as the post-season progressed last year. Absent from the list is #34-ranked, Leila Mantilla of Penfield (4:41 1500 at Outdoor States last year), who beat teammate Lembo by 26 seconds in their first meet, to finish just behind the top East Aurora girl.

1 Tuite, Shaylyn Mendon
2 Hughes, Ashton Fairport
3 McCormick, Kate Canandaigua
4 Lembo, Katie Penfield
5 Mack, Kellie Canandaigua
6 Malone, Rachel Fairport
7 Cocchiara, Amanda Hilton
8 Hallock, Allison Mendon
9 D'Amore, Kendall Canandaigua
10 McCormick, Meghan Canandaigua
11 Steinke, Ruth Honeoye Falls Lima
12 Cole, Hannah Honeoye Falls Lima
13 Engle, Katie Honeoye Falls Lima
14 Greiner, Lizzie Rush Henrietta
15 Colon, Christina Thomas
16 Atkins, Morgan Mendon
17 Rosenthal, Jane Fairport
18 Maffett, Megan Spencerport
19 Lawler, Maggie Victor
20 O'Neill, Karli Churchville Chili
21 Lenhardt, Carly Fairport
22 Greiner, Becky Rush Henrietta
23 Tuttle, Georgia Irondequoit
24 Mizes, Alicia Sutherland
25 D'Amore, Lauren Canandaigua
26 Palermo, Val Schroeder

Week 1 Scouting Report Alert

This year I am posting our League meet scouting reports at our Google Group sites, so check out the files that I have just uploaded for a preview of tomorrow's meet at Basil Marella Park (formerly known as English Road Park).

The bottom line is that the Boys and Girls teams are both up against two powerhouses in RH (ranked 5th in the State for boys and unranked - but solid - for girls) and HFL (ranked 12th and 15th in the State for boys and girls), but should be able to earn a split on the day with wins over Odyssey and East Rochester.

Monroe County XC - 2010 Girls Team Preview

Here are the computer's predictions for the Monroe County girls teams this fall. Keep in mind that these are based solely on 2009 XC performances, and there were some considerable shakeups during track season that should alter the expected results. And of course this does not include newcomers, up from the modified ranks, that can have an immediate impact for girls teams (as opposed to boys teams, where we generally see no impact).

Canandaigua 52
Mendon 106
Fairport 113
Honeoye Falls Lima 116
Penfield 156
Hilton 186
Thomas 216
Sutherland 217
Rush Henrietta 217
Irondequoit 289
Batavia 297
Victor 346
Brighton 356
Spencerport 362
Churchville Chili 390
Athena 398
Brockport 412
Schroeder 442
Gates Chili 464
Olympia 530
East Irondequoit 600
Arcadia 654
Odyssey inc
East Rochester inc

Some quick additional notes: I don't expect Canandaigua to run away with the Class A Sectional title in a manner as easy as this would suggest. Also, Penfield is most likely much closer to Fairport in Class AA, given that Leila Mantilla is only ranked 34th, and we saw what she did during track season.

Monroe County XC - 2010 Boys Individual Preview

Here are the top 25 returning from last year, based on XC performances only:


1. Rousell, Jared Thomas
2. Lipani, Lou Arcadia
3. Smolensky, Scotty Brighton
4. Erb, M.J. Victor
5. Kozyra, Nate Rush Henrietta
6. Hoose, Kevin Honeoye Falls Lima
7. Eustance, Tyler Hilton
8. Jones, Jesse Brockport
9. Gumina, Tyler Penfield
10. Fischer, Sean Sutherland
11. Raymond, Alex Rush Henrietta
12. Nasello, AJ Schroeder
13. Burke, Colby Rush Henrietta
14. Reid, Kyle Victor
15. Mateer, Tim Thomas
16. Kandt, Joel Brockport
17. DeClerck, Cole Thomas
18. VanVleck, Matt Mendon
19. Dworkin, Jordan Sutherland
20. Cuddeback, Brad Hilton
21. Pirnie, Andrew Hilton
22. Sweeney, Andrew Rush Henrietta
23. Tobey, Kevin Gates Chili
24. Holbrook, Austin Olympia
25. Jablonski, Kevin Fairport

Early Season Scramble Results

Well, that was a surprisingly good overall performance at Midlakes HS last night. I found the official results here last night, which was also a good performance on someone's part.

Our results sheet is available at the Google Groups site (look under "Files"), but here are some of the highlights:

The Boys average improvement over last year was a whopping 2:36! That is with 10 returning runners included. The median was 2:09. The average improvement of the 19 runners in the Blue & Gold was 54 seconds (median 39), despite yesterday's course being 5K vs 3mi.

The Girls had an even better performance, with the 3 girls who ran last year improving by 1:35, 5:40 and 6:58. The improvement over Blue & Gold (5 girls) averaged 2:56 (median 1:43).

The Soph/Frosh boys had a chance to really shine in this format, and would have easily walked away with the team title by placing 3-4-13-16-27. Will, Justin R, Eric M and Ethan claimed four of the top 9 all time Early Season Scramble Schroeder performances.

For the girls, Natalie and Sarah notched the 6th and 7th best Schroeder times at this meet, behind only Val from last year and the top 4 girls from the talented 2007 squad.

Coming Soon: Monroe County Boys Individual Preview

Monroe County XC - 2010 Boys Team Preview

Here are the preseason computer rankings for Monroe County Boys. These are based strictly on last year's XC performances and have not been updated with track season efforts. As would be expected, RH is the clear favorite, with their 4 sophomores from last year all returning. After that, there is a lot of room for change among the order of the next 7 teams, as just a few seconds per man can quickly add or subtract 25 points. All of the top 8 teams, except Thomas, show up in the preseason state rankings at TullyRunners.

The good guys show up down in 12th place, but I expect to see some relative improvement, especially at the 4 and 5 spots, vs what the computer sees.

Rush Henrietta 81
Hilton 132
Sutherland 143
Brighton 168
Victor 183
Honeoye Falls Lima 201
Thomas 207
Mendon 222
Irondequoit 268
Penfield 273
Brockport 294
Schroeder 308
Gates Chili 325
Batavia 325
Fairport 353
Arcadia 424
Odyssey 452
Athena 513
Spencerport 522
Churchville Chili 539
Canandaigua 570
Olympia 630
East Rochester 664
East Irondequoit 759

Back To School

Enjoy your last day of summer vacation (while you wrap up your summer reading assignment)! Tomorrow, it's back to the old school routine. We've had some 8am practices, but I imagine sleep habits will have to change substantially as many of you have to catch pre-7am buses.

We are now just 7 days from our first league meet, and it is a doozy, with RH and HFL included. Coupled with some extra work that we have planned this week, it becomes quite important that you get plenty of sleep as we prepare for this meet.

Keep in mind that the practice schedule is a little different this week. Today at Schroeder, then one day at Webster Park before heading to Midlakes HS on Thursday for the Early Season Scramble and English Road on Friday to sample the course for next Tuesday's meet. We wrap up on Saturday with a point-to-point run, so we will meet at Webster Park, but finish up at North Ponds Park.

Finally, prior to our first league meet, I will be posting the preseason view of Monroe County Boys and Girls, Team and Individual. These are not very scientific, since they rely solely on data from the 2009 season, but they do give a good indicator of rough expectations in 2010.

Happy Labor Day!

Coach Klehr mentioned the Dash in the Dark highlight video. It is located here.

Next up for the JV team is the Early Season Scramble at Midlakes HS. The Varsity is not racing until the league opener a week from tomorrow. More on that later.

Here is the Early Season Scramble schedule:
4:30 girls frosh/soph race
5:10 boys frosh/soph race
5:50 girls junior/senior race
6:30 boys junior/senior race

[Semi-]Complete meet information is available in this PDF file.

Last year's results are available here.

Dash in the Dark

We had some pleasant surprises at our first interscholastic meet of the season.

In the girls varsity race, Val and Amanda both won medals, placing 7th and 9th in 13:14 and 13:15, respectively. Both girls ran very nice negative splits (Val by 12 seconds, Amanda by 31!). Meanwhile, Alaina, Katie and Sarah all made huge improvements in their per-mile pace, compared to the Blue & Gold meet. The girls JV race was run concurrently, and Megan, Lillian and Lindsay all had excellent first miles, and should be able to improve rapidly as their endurance continues to improve.

The boys varsity "A" team managed to pick up the win, with AJ and Geoff earning medals for 5th and 6th places (10:35 and 10:39) and Justin M posting a solid 11:16. The "B" team ran well, with John W, Justin R and Joe M finishing within 12 seconds of each other. John K had the biggest improvement of the varsity runners, knocking 34 seconds per mile off his Blue & Gold pace.

In the boys JV race, Zach had the fastest time on the team, by almost a minute, and was 4th overall. Jacob D had the second best time, but it was not quite enough, even with David A's 43 sec/mile improvement from Blue & Gold, for the "A" team to catch the "B" team. The "C" and "D" teams showed huge improvement from the Blue & Gold, averaging 1:18 per mile faster.

Finally, the Open race saw some good Webster performances, led by Will's second place finish (behind only Coach Tytler from Irondequoit). Eric M was 6th and Annelise was 4th among the girls. The other largest improvements over Blue & Gold were shown by Mike H and Patrick.

Complete results are available on Yellowjacket Racing's 2010 Results page (scroll all the way down to the September results).

Tomorrow, We Race

OK, our season gets underway tomorrow, just as the Bills are playing their final preseason game (I guess I'll have to TiVo that). We're participating in what seems to be a very interesting early-season format, a XC Relay, under the lights - the "Dash in the Dark" at Oakfield-Alabama High School. Here is some information concerning the meet:

Schedule
6:00pm OPEN RACE
6:30pm Junior Varsity Girls
7:20pm Junior Varsity Boys
8:10pm Varsity Girls
9:00pm Varsity Boys

Format
3 x 2 mile XC relay, with each runner completing two loops of the one mile course

Concession Stand
Concession Stand will have t-shirts and food, drink, and snacks for sale

Directions from Schroeder
104 West to
590 South to
490 West to
Exit to for Bergen (Rt 33),
turn right on Rt 33 (West), go 0.2 miles
turn right on Rt 19 (North), go 0.3 miles
turn left on Rt 262 (West), go 16.6 miles
turn right on Rt 63 (North), school is on the right (0.7 miles)

You can avoid downtown traffic, if necessary, by taking 590S-390S-Thruway West to Batavia exit to Rt 63 North.