Section V XC Championships - Info and Class A Preview

So, as many have heard, I am leaving Xerox after 26 years of service, to pursue a very exciting opportunity.  Since next Tuesday is my last day, I have been swamped at work, and have not been able to do more than the Class A analysis for now.  We'll see what tonight brings - we are hosting the pasta party which may be conducive to adding additional races, or not...

First, the basics for tomorrow.  The Section V Championship meet is once again at Genesee Community College, just outside of Batavia - you can see the map of how I get there at last year's info page.  DO NOT look at the start times on that page, because they shuffled things for this year.  Here is the race schedule for this year:

• 10:30 Boys Class C Race
• 11:00 Boys Class DD/D Race
• 11:30 Girls Class C Race
• 12:00 Girls Class DD/D race
• 12:30 Awards for Classes C, DD, D Races
• 1:30 Boys Class A Race
• 2:00 Boys Class B Race
• 2:30 Girls Class A Race
• 3:00 Girls Class B Race
• 3:30 Awards for Classes A, B

Now for the forecast - up first are the boys, so here is the computer's prediction for team scores (note - I have excluded the city schools because I am not sure which schools may have complete teams, and I have lost track of how the schools-within-the-schools alter the XC classifications):

Boys A

1	Thomas	58
2	Fairport	87
3	McQuaid	127
4	Irondequoit	132
5	Victor	152
6	Hilton	176
7	Penfield	180
8	Rush Henrietta	196
9	Schroeder	220
10	Canandaigua	243
11	Athena	284
12	Churchville Chili	297
13	Spencerport	314
14	Gates Chili	383
15	Brockport	411

McQuaid has not participated in the same races as Monroe County teams very often, so I tend to believe they will perform better than listed here and have a decent chance of getting by Fairport for second.

The top individuals, with some questionable time predictions (Mickey should be be able to break 15:40):

Rank	Name	Grade	School	Proj. Time
1	Burke, Mickey	12	Rush Henrietta	15:57
2	Dyrland, Josh	12	Irondequoit	16:10
3	Ciolkowski, Nick	11	McQuaid	16:10
4	Ranke, Tyler	12	Hilton	16:39
5	Johnson, Keith	12	Thomas	16:40
6	Howe, Nate	12	McQuaid	16:44
7	Shanahan, Luke	12	Victor	16:48
8	Neamtu, Nick	10	Thomas	16:51
9	Mertens, George	12	Victor	16:53
10	Kaukeinen, Britt	10	Irondequoit	16:58
11	Witt, Kevin	12	Thomas	17:01
12	White, Jimmy	12	Fairport	17:02
13	Goldstein, Josh	12	Thomas	17:05
14	Yost, Nathan	12	Victor	17:06
15	Grouse, David	12	Fairport	17:13
16	Kozlowski, Mike	12	Penfield	17:14
17	Kolankiewicz, Thomas	12	Athena	17:14
18	Mallow, Mike	10	Fairport	17:16
19	Plummer, Bailey	11	Spencerport	17:18
20	Hatta, Olivier	12	Fairport	17:18
21	Vestri, Justin	11	Thomas	17:19
22	Sargeant, Seamus	12	Fairport	17:25
23	Glavin, Donovan	10	McQuaid	17:27
24	Shoemaker, Jamie	9	Athena	17:34
25	Zugnoni, Josh	10	Rush Henrietta	17:34

Girls A

Here I forgot to include Mercy, and am out of time to add them in.  Penfield proved themselves last week, but the computer still thinks Thomas can win, if Ellie Songer is back in action, otherwise it will be Penfield.

1	Thomas	56
2	Penfield	69
3	Rush Henrietta	105
4	Fairport	109
5	Schroeder	111
6	Hilton	132
7	Canandaigua	211
8	Victor	244
9	Irondequoit	273
10	Churchville Chili	275
11	Brockport	318
12	Spencerport	335
13	Athena	357
14	Gates Chili	372

And the top individuals:

1	Lembo, Katie	12	Penfield	18:30
2	Jensen, Kennedy	12	Canandaigua	18:54
3	Albrecht, Autumn	11	Brockport	19:02
4	Cooper, Alex	11	Rush Henrietta	19:16
5	Quinn, Siobhan	11	Rush Henrietta	19:25
6	Vestri, Amanda	9	Thomas	19:36
7	Paratore, Amanda	12	Schroeder	19:56
8	Songer, Ellie	10	Thomas	20:04
9	Ashton, Claire	9	Thomas	20:07
10	Adams, Laura	12	Thomas	20:13
11	Sedita, Erin	12	Fairport	20:17
12	Kostarellis, Anna	9	Churchville Chili	20:18
13	Kunigan, Mary	11	Hilton	20:27
14	Leo, Trista	12	Penfield	20:33
15	Sedita, Megan	10	Penfield	20:33
16	Nortz, Heather	11	Fairport	20:37
17	Wiseman, Julia	11	Schroeder	20:39
18	Cok, Sarah	11	Penfield	20:40
19	Canessa, Kelsie	9	Schroeder	20:43
20	Swider, Katie	11	Fairport	20:57
21	Miller, Claire	10	Penfield	20:59
22	Fahrenholz, Tory	10	Penfield	21:00
23	Mechler, Brittany	11	Thomas	21:01
24	Horan, Shannon	11	Fairport	21:02
25	Watson, Sammy	9	Rush Henrietta	21:03

Monroe County Championships - Girls Preview

The girls race should be quite interesting tomorrow.  Thomas has not run that much, but when they have, they've been better than Penfield.  I expect a close meet, if they both run full strength this week, before doing it all again next week with the state meet berth on the line.  We have our work cut out, as Fairport has come on strong again after a quick start and a mid-season struggle.  Mendon is still an enigma, as they've had different performances all season long.  Here's how it looks:

1	Thomas	81
2	Penfield	91
3	Fairport	132
4	Mendon	136
5	Schroeder	148
6	Rush Henrietta	163
7	Hilton	188
8	Honeoye Falls Lima	205
9	Batavia	304
10	Canandaigua	314
11	Victor	335
12	Brighton	345
13	Irondequoit	401
14	Churchville Chili	413
15	Sutherland	419
16	Brockport	468
17	Spencerport	469
18	Odyssey	497
19	East Irondequoit	504
20	Athena	525
21	Gates Chili	540
22	Arcadia	640
23	Olympia	inc

The individuals favored for first team All County include the following:

Rank	Name	Grade	School
1	Lembo, Katie	12	Penfield
2	Jensen, Kennedy	12	Canandaigua
3	Albrecht, Autumn	11	Brockport
4	Cooper, Alex	11	Rush Henrietta
5	Quinn, Siobhan	11	Rush Henrietta
6	Paratore, Amanda	12	Schroeder
7	Vestri, Amanda	9	Thomas
8	Visca, Mary	11	Sutherland
9	Ashton, Claire	9	Thomas
10	Songer, Ellie	10	Thomas
11	Adams, Laura	12	Thomas
12	Barger, Mary	11	Mendon
13	Kostarellis, Anna	9	Churchville Chili
14	Nortz, Heather	11	Fairport
15	Mevorach, Martha	12	Honeoye Falls Lima
16	Sedita, Megan	10	Penfield
17	Yancey, Colleen	12	Mendon
18	Sedita, Erin	12	Fairport
19	Kunigan, Mary	11	Hilton
20	Wiseman, Julia	11	Schroeder
21	Canessa, Kelsie	9	Schroeder
22	Eastridge, Emma	10	Batavia
23	Cok, Sarah	11	Penfield
24	Fahrenholz, Tory	10	Penfield
25	Campbell, Alexa	12	Brighton
26	Swider, Katie	11	Fairport
27	Leo, Trista	12	Penfield
28	Gingello, Marissa	12	Penfield
29	Tuite, Kari	11	Mendon
30	Page, Shannon	11	Hilton
31	Douglas, Riley	11	Honeoye Falls Lima
32	Kindig, Alexis	12	Batavia
33	Wagner, Clara	12	Irondequoit
34	Peters, Lexi	8	Rush Henrietta

Monroe County Championships - Boys Preview

Here is a quick preview of the Varsity Boys race tomorrow.  First, the predicted team scores:

1	Thomas	71
2	Mendon	90
3	Fairport	114
4	Brighton	125
5	Irondequoit	196
6	Victor	212
7	Sutherland	216
8	Honeoye Falls Lima	260
9	Arcadia	270
10	Penfield	274
11	Hilton	279
12	Schroeder	341
13	Canandaigua	344
14	Rush Henrietta	353
15	Batavia	384
16	Athena	427
17	Churchville Chili	447
18	Spencerport	472
19	Gates Chili	543
20	Odyssey	568
21	Brockport	602
22	East Irondequoit	604
23	Olympia	728

Leading candidates for first team all-county:

Rank	Name	Grade	School
1	Burke, Mickey	12	Rush Henrietta
2	Dyrland, Josh	12	Irondequoit
3	Ronchetti, Will	12	Brighton
4	Johnson, Keith	12	Thomas
5	Shanahan, Luke	12	Victor
6	Neamtu, Nick	10	Thomas
7	Geraci, Matt	11	Honeoye Falls Lima
8	Ranke, Tyler	12	Hilton
9	Mertens, George	12	Victor
10	White, Jimmy	12	Fairport
11	Witt, Kevin	12	Thomas
12	Green, Connor	12	Mendon
13	Kaukeinen, Britt	10	Irondequoit
14	Doyle, Nathan	12	Mendon
15	Wesley, Jack	12	Mendon
16	Robbins, Luke	10	Sutherland
17	Goldstein, Josh	12	Thomas
18	Northrup, Brian	12	Arcadia
19	Schmitt, Drew	10	Brighton
20	Sargeant, Seamus	12	Fairport
21	Yost, Nathan	12	Victor
22	Mallow, Mike	10	Fairport
23	Dooley, Kevin	11	Mendon
24	Kozlowski, Mike	12	Penfield
25	Simpson, Zak	12	Brighton
26	Goodman, Isaac	10	Mendon
27	Feigel, Evan	11	Mendon
28	Grouse, David	12	Fairport
29	Demmer, Ty	12	Batavia
30	Hess, Griffin	10	Mendon
31	Roach, Coleman	10	Honeoye Falls Lima
32	Kolankiewicz, Thomas	12	Athena
33	Vestri, Justin	11	Thomas
34	Plummer, Bailey	11	Spencerport

Monroe County Championships

I've had even more than usual going on this month, and making time for blog entries ended up on the wrong side of the line between what I could get done and what I could not.  I did not want to get to the County Meet without getting online with my annual predictions.  First, let's cover the details about the meet tomorrow, then I will post a couple more entries today to cover the predictions.

The meet will be held at Parma Park (see directions at the bottom of this post - but keep driving east past "Point B" to the parking lot by the starting line).  The schedule is as follows:

• 11:15 Modified Girls
• 11:45 Modified Boys
• 1:00 JV Girls (no Schroeder entries)
• 1:30 JV Boys (9th and 10th graders only)
• 2:00 Varsity Girls
• 2:30 Varsity Boys
• 3:00 Varsity “B” Girls
• 3:30 Varsity “B” Boys
• 4:15 Awards in shelter past finish line

View Larger Map

Seneca Park Today

Our league meet schedule takes us to Seneca Park today to face Arcadia, Churchville-Chile, Hilton and Penfield.  On the girls side, this puts together 3 of the top 25 large schools in the state, as Penfield is #8, Schroeder is #16 and Hilton is #25, which is a rematch of last Friday's Penfield-Irondequoit invitational (results are here).  The boys will have the unusual opportunity to face the three teams ranked immediately ahead of them in the Monroe County computer rankings, as Schroeder is #12, Hilton is #11, Penfield #10 and Arcadia #9.

Scoring today's meet as an invitational, the computer predicts the following very close result:
Penfield 53
Arcadia 55
Hilton 62
Schroeder 63
C-C 112

So, expect to see several dual meets today that are 26-29, 27-28 or even 28-28 and the sixth runner will break the tie.

8-0!

The boys and girls teams combined to go 8-0 on Tuesday in our league meet with Rush Henrietta, Canandaigua, Batavia and Eastridge.  The girls race turned out to be a bit anti-climatic as RH chose to sit stars Siobhon Quinn and Alex Cooper, currently ranked 9th and 10th in the state, who were coming off fantastic races at McQuaid, allowing our girls to take the top 5 places against RH.  As Kennedy Jensen of Canandaigua was also sitting out after a late-night return from an Ivy college visit (I guess her brain moves as quickly as her legs), our girls were able to take 5 of the top 8 places overall (and it would have been 5 of 7, if not for Dana Garbinski's incredible speed down the stretch).

The boys had a tougher meet, but rose to the occasion as Kevin, Justin and Zach went 3-4-5, Ray cracked the top ten and Kade came on strong to fill in for Peter, who was still ill but made a strong effort to help out.  In the end, we had five runners in before anyone else had four, and managed surprisingly wide margins of victory over the much-improved Batavia team, and a solid Canandaigua team.  Mickey Burke also took the race off, coming off of his unbelievable record-setting race at McQuaid, where he ran 14:25, allowing us a comfortable win over RH as well.

Yesterday and Today

The only real "yesterday" part is that I did not have time to post anything about the McQuaid Invitational.  Our top story there was that the girls pulled off a shocking 9th place finish in a loaded Large School seeded race, which included the top-ranked team in the country finishing second!  We managed to be the third-best Section V team, behind our closest neighbors in the Section: Thomas and Penfield, but finishing ahead of Hilton, Fairport and Rush-Henrietta, and far exceeding our "tenth-best" Section V ranking.  In the "merged" results (this is where they put all of the races together and pretend it was one race), R-H slipped by us as they had a ninth-grader finish third in the Sophomore race.  She would have broken into their top five in the Varsity race, thus lowering their merge score.

This is where the Today part comes in, as fate would have it, our league meet against R-H is scheduled for today, and we will get a quick rematch of Saturday's race, just three days later.  It should be an interesting race, and should include Kennedy Jensen, one of the top runners in the country (not just Monroe County), who was a precautionary last-minute scratch at McQuaid.  We have not beaten Canandaigua since they entered the league in 2009, but have the opportunity to do so this year.  Batavia and Eastridge are our other opponents.

On the boys side, McQuaid was a solid race, and we placed 9th in the unseeded large school race.  The boys have not beaten Rush-Henrietta since 2005, and also have close competitors in Canandaigua, and even Batavia today.

Complete McQuaid results are available here.

For today's meet, we return to Center Park for the second time this year - it is located on Ayrault Rd, just east of Turk Hill.

More McQuaid Race Outlooks

A quick look at the top teams in the other seeded races (ignoring most out of state and Canadian teams)...

Boys A
East Aurora - still Class B (#10) for one last year, but qualifies for a small school at McQuaid!
Alden - #3 in Class C
Barker - #3 in Class D, but more battle-tested than ER
East Rochester - #2 in Class D
Marcellus - #7 in Class C
Pawling - #9 in Class C
Wheatland-Chili - #7 in Class D
Weedsport - #9 in Class D

Girls A -  28 schools, largest seeded race of the day
East Aurora - #1 in Class B
Maple Grove - #1 in Class D
Skaneateles - #2 in Class C
Tully - #2 in Class D
Alden - #6 in Class C
[Akron - #7 in Class C is running unseeded for some reason]
[Fredonia - #10 in Class C is running unseeded for some reason]
Notre Dame - Batavia - #9 in Class D

Girls AA
Burnt Hills - #3 in Class B
Sweet Home - #5 in Class B
Pittsford Mendon - #13 in Class B
HF-L - #14 in Class B
Starpoint - #19 in Class B
Walsh Jesuit is usually very strong in the boys race and may make a splash here
[Canandaigua = Kennedy Jensen is running]

Boys AA

Burnt Hills - #1 in Class B

Walsh Jesuit

Brighton - #5 in Class B

Pittsford Mendon - #6 in Class B

E. Syracuse - Minoa - #15 in Class B

Sweet Home - #16 in Class B

Boys AAA

F-M - #1 in Class A
Liverpool - #3 in Class A
Webster Thomas - amazingly unranked in Class A
Clarence - #6 in Class A?
West Genesee - #9 in Class A
Ithaca - #10 in Class A
McQuaid - #14 in Class A
Fairport - #15 in Class A
Central Square - #18 in Class A
[Rush Henrietta = Mickey Burke is running]

McQuaid Invitational

Once again the McQuaid Invitational is upon us.  It looks to be bigger than ever this year, with over 7000 runners entered.  Here is a link to their main page, a link to the schedule, and a link to some parking information.  Our races are as follows:

1:03	Race #14	Sophomore Boys (All Schools)
2:26	Race #18	Girls Varsity "B" (a J.V. race) for Medium and Large schools
2:50	Race #19	Boys Jr. High #3 (Large schools)
3:26	Race #21	Girls Jr. High #3 (Large schools)
3:38	Race #22	Boys Unseeded Varsity AAA-2 (large schools)	Mike Diggins Memorial
3:58	Race #23	Girls Seeded Varsity AAA (Large schools)
4:45	Race #25	Boys Varsity "B" (A J.V. race) for Large schools

I've done some scouting of the Girls race, but their is a great deal of uncertainty in these numbers because of the mix of teams involved.  There should be no debating the first two teams, F-M and Unionville, but there should be a lively battle for the next ten places.  Webster Thomas does not appear on any state rankings, and are only ranked third locally, but they looked tough on Tuesday without their #2 runner, and beat Penfield 23-32 on Penfield's "home" course last week.

1	FM	60
2	Unionville	109
3	Webster Thomas	148
4	Penfield	165
5	Corning	186
6	Rush-Henrietta	196
7	Westdale Secondary S	197
8	Fairport	199
9	Hilton	210
10	Elmira District	220
11	Clarence	220
12	Webster Schroeder	258
13	Ithaca	281
14	West Genesee	289
15	Central Square	353
16	Williamsville N	371
17	St.Aloysius Gonzaga-	443
18	Horseheads	455
19	Auburn	492
20	Tyburn Academy	525

Maybe some more coming later tonight...

Today's Meet

We are hosting the league meet today.  The girls will have a tough time with Thomas - in addition to the two fast ninth graders that they added, they picked up a new tenth grader that is fast, and Laura has improved quite a bit, giving them four top runners.  We should be able to handle the other schools as Sutherland drops off very quickly after Mary Visca, Victor's pack is a bit behind ours, and Odyssey is down following the retirement of their coach who has a young family.

The boys aren't expecting to have any close team scores today, but should have plenty of individual competition as the Thomas and Sutherland have a large number of runners near our top boys (not to mention a large number of runners overall).

The Boys race starts first at 4:30pm (risk of delay is fairly low with the teams that are attending), followed by the Modified races (the boys usually get a two-minute head start), which should being a little after 5, and the Girls will follow, most likely just after 5:30.

Today marks the last chance for our eleven seniors to race on our home course - best of luck to all of them!

Coach Klehr Gets Ink

Coming off a very nice 1:24:44 at the Rochester Half Marathon yesterday, Coach Klehr made the paper today.  The D&C recognized his performance, noting that he is one of the local coaches that "leads by example".  Congratulations to Coach Klehr, and good luck as he makes his final preparations for the Wineglass Marathon on October 13th.

Tomorrow the team hosts a league meet at Webster Park.  The guests include our cross-town friends from Thomas, as well as strong teams from Victor and Sutherland, plus the only remaining small school in the Monroe County league, Greece Odyssey.  Scouting info to come later.

Who Will be the King of Queensbury?

On Saturday the Varsity teams will be competing at Queensbury High School, site of this year's State Meet.  The relevant part of the schedule for us, is as follows:

9:20 am     Modified Boys unlimited (1 runner)

11:00 am   Girls Varsity Championship/Large School (spectating only)

11:20 am   Boys Varsity Championship/Large School (spectating only)

11:40 pm   Girls Varsity Division II Large School (7 runners)

12:00 pm   Boys Varsity Division II Large School (7 runners)

1:20 pm     Boys JV Division 1 (1-2 runners)

Tully Runners has a link to the box assignments for each race.

Westward Ho!

So, tomorrow's race is over at Northampton Park; I will include directions from Schroeder below.  We have never run at Northampton.  The course was added in 2006 and  has been revised a couple of times since then, with the final revision happening in 2009.  The ski hill which is ascended shortly after the two mile mark is the signature feature of the course.  It is open, so it is easy to see the runners attacking the hill, but much of the race is contested on trails outside of the spectators' view.  The best views are from the start into the woods, a visible loop leading up to the mile mark and beyond (the runners loop back behind the starting line, the hill area after the two mile mark, and a short stretch leading to the finish (which is quite close to the starting line).


View Larger Map

Happy Birthday!

I have been blessed to be able to coach these past eight years.  It has been such a rewarding experience seeing each batch of ninth grade children grow into fine young adults by their senior year (and improve their running along the way).  Many things have had to come together to make this happen, but one person is most responsible for the opportunity that I've had, and that is my wonderful wife, Christine.

In order to get out of work early for practice, I've had to depart for work early, leaving Chris to battle the four children (well, only two now) as they drag their feet in getting out the door for school in the morning.  Being away from home for practices, late Tuesday meets and all-day invitationals on Saturdays leaves Chris scrambling to do so much alone: shuttling kids to their other sports and activities, mowing the lawn and taking care of all of the other things that keep our head above water on the home front.

So, September 13th, even this year, falling on a Friday, has been a lucky day for me as it is the anniversary of Chris coming into the world a "few" years ago, and I've decided it is a good day to say (well, write) what I'm always thinking:  Thank You, Dear!

Happy Birthday, Chris!

The Best Laid Schemes...

Robert Burns wrote of the best laid schemes of mice and men, saying they go often awry, and Thursday was no exception to that!

We were taking advantage of the fact that we have not run at Northampton Park in recorded history (the course was new in 2006 and revised in 2009) to travel there for a practice on Thursday, ahead of our league meet next Tuesday, and to experience what we seldom experience during the season, after school starts: some serious hill training.

I was able to arrive early and start checking out the course.  I knew there was a ski hill in the second mile, and I had run past it once in the past, but I had not fully experienced the hill.  Seeing it live (rather than on Google Maps) got me quite excited about my planned workout, as its placement was perfect.  The plan (or scheme): some warm-up on the first mile of the course, then dynamic, 2 x 1/2 mile on the second mile, about 5 hill repeats (over 200m a pop), and 2 x 1/2 mile on the third mile (including one last trip up the hill).

The reality: warm-up, dynamic, then noticed some dark and ominous clouds rolling in.  We went ahead with a quick jog and some strides, and got to the line, when the thunder rumbled.  So, it was onto the bus.  After the delay a check of the radar looked promising, so we did a couple of minutes of jogging and a stride before starting the first 1/2 mile.  Just as we finished, another rumble, so it was tempo back to the bus and we had to call it a day.  Not a single hill for anyone (except the coaches who laid out and picked up cones).

The team thinks they dodged a bullet, but now we just have to get creative :-).

Looking to the Dark for Signs of Light

Friday night's Dash in the Dark certainly provided some reason for optimism for this Cross Country season.  While none of our boys will be at the front of big races, it appears that any of the top 4 could be our top guy on any given day.  Getting four runners across the line is a good start, and there seems to be some strong contenders for making the 1 thru 5 gap very small, with perhaps 7 or 8 runners with a chance to crack the top 7.  5 of the 13 boys who ran both years improved by 58 seconds or more this year over last - a sign that hard work is paying off.

While the boys had a good race, the girls were even better.  The top relay team placed 5th, behind only very good teams from Starpoint, East Aurora, Sweet Home and Mendon.  Their time of 37:26 was 11 seconds faster than Val, Amanda and Alaina ran when they won the race two years ago.  And the B team was 4th among B teams, with some excellent running, especially by Ashlynn.  Overall, 8 of the 9 returning girls improved by over 40 seconds, and this year's team beat last year's team by a 24-33 dual meet score.