Week 1 Recap

An exciting week around the league to open up the season!

Basil Marella
Our girls and boys both swept the day, for just the second time since the Webster schools split. The girls grabbed 7 of the top 9 spots to go 3-0. Val tied for the 25th best time since 2005, when record-keeping began. Unfortunately, it seems that her last name prevents her from being displayed on this page. It appears that ties are broken by alphabetic order of the last name!

The boys found themselves in the Battle of Greece, with the three Greece teams really going after bragging rights. Each of their three meets was decided by 27-29 or 27-30. Meanwhile, our boys won by scores of 22-37, 22-38 and 22-39.

Harris Whalen
Probably the most exciting girls race of the day was the Penfield vs HFL. Leila Mantilla ran the second best recorded time on the course, behind only Shaylyn Tuite, and Ketie Lembo was 2nd. That was just enough to hold off HFL's pack for a 27-29 win, despite a 3:51 gap for 1 thru 5.

In the boys race, Sutherland was favored, but was not at full strength, so Victor recorded a 25-32 win over them and HFL edged them, 28-28, as their 6th man edged Sutherland's 5th by just 4 seconds.

Mendon West
This was the featured girls match-up of the day, with Canandaigua, Mendon and RH competing. Canandaigua looked quite tough, taking 3 of the first 4 places and winning easily. Mendon was strong enough to overcome RH's 39-second 1-5 gap to win, 27-29.

The boys race was strictly a two-team affair, with Mendon and RH each taking 6 of the top 12 places. RH stayed just a step ahead all the way down the line, for a comfortable 23-32 win.

Parma Park
The Fairport girls had underwhelming wins over Brighton and Hilton. That may just be a sign that Brighton and Hilton may be closer to our heels than expected.

The Hilton boys lost another close meet on their home course as Fairport sneaked in a 6th runner to win, 28-28. Brighton easily defeated both of those teams, as expected, despite Will Ronchetti not being the fastest sophomore out there (Hilton's Tyler Ranke won in 17:26).

Seneca Park
Thomas could not take advantage of Irondequoit only placing 4 girls in the top 24, while they had 11, and lost by a 28-29 score.

The boys also had an exciting race, with sophomores named Josh from Thomas and Irondequoit (Goldstein and Dyrland) went 1-2. In this race, it was Thomas that couldn't get a 5th runner in quick enough with Matt Loce and Ben Whitman coming in just behind Irondequoit's 4-5-6 pack to enable Irondequoit to pull out a 28-28 win.

Seniors

As you begin your last high school Cross Country season, this article that I found in the Buffalo News provides some thought-starters.

I hope that each of you has a very successful season, as viewed in the many unique ways that you define success.

Tomorrow's Meet

Our league schedule gets underway tomorrow, as we open at Basil Marella Park against three Greece schools: Arcadia, Odyssey and Olympia. The boys race is scheduled to start at 4:30, with the girls race to follow (probably by 5:15).

Based on returning runners from the four schools involved, our chances of sweeping the meet are quite good. Last year, the Schroeder boys and girls did that for the first time since the Webster schools were split, so it is a major accomplishment if we can pull it off. Here are the top returning runners from the other schools, along with predicted times:

Boys
Northrup, Brian 10 Arcadia 17:50
Tshibangu, Raphael 11 Olympia 18:17
Freudenvoll, Dominic 11 Arcadia 18:25
Custozzo, Steven 10 Odyssey 18:44
Mangiafesto, Jeff 12 Odyssey 18:52
Greene, Nick 12 Arcadia 19:23
Seyboth, Scott 12 Olympia 19:30
Mesolella, Brian 12 Olympia 19:59
Kishlar, David 12 Olympia 20:10
Ostrander, Mike 12 Arcadia 20:20
Anderson, James 10 Odyssey 20:43
Burgos, Roberto 12 Olympia 20:50

Girls
Swertfeger, Sarah 12 Olympia 20:00
Bubie, Nicole 12 Odyssey 21:43
Erbelding, Kathryn 12 Olympia 21:53
Herrick, Zoe 10 Odyssey 22:33
Greico, Mariah 10 Odyssey 23:31
Eckert, Julie 12 Odyssey 25:33
Custozzo, Amanda 12 Odyssey 25:47
Lezette, Victoria 10 Arcadia 25:56

Here are directions to the park (note the start/finish lines are in the northwest part of the park):


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Back From the Marathon

Since I am back from the Lehigh Valley Marathon, I can finally get around to posting here. The team's trip to the "Dash in the Dark", was both fun and successful. While last year saw the boys pull off an exciting come-from-behind victory, this year saw the girls get the win over Mendon, using a different strategy: Amanda went first and opened up a lead over Mendon's top two runners. Val extended the lead to just over a minute, despite being all alone, setting things up for Alaina, who did not have to worry about Shaylyn Tuite running for Mendon. Alaina ran a fine race, splitting 6:49, then 6:39, for a 33-second win!

While our top boys did not match up with last year's top guys, as a team the performance was excellent, as 13 of the top 25 performances are from this year's race. Will leading off with a 10:52 showed that he is ready to race. The biggest surprise was Kevin pulling off an 11:48 in the Blue race, which was our 6th fastest time of the day.

Complete results are available at YellowJacket racing - choose Results, then 2011, then scroll as needed to the Sept 9th date.

For the marathon story, you can check out my Attackpoint log for today.

Coming tomorrow: a preview of our first league meet, scheduled for Tuesday at Basil Marella Park in Greece.

Back To School

Tomorrow is the day that students have been dreading - back to school in Webster. Remember, it could have been worse: Penfield, among others started today.

Today is our last practice at Schroeder until the end of the year, and it is our last 5:30 practice, so dinner can be moved back to a more normal time! After practices at Webster Park on Wednesday and Thursday, we will be off to Dash in the Dark on Friday. Complete information (including a nice video from last year) is available here, but here is the quick version:

It is held at Oakfield-Alabama High School. It is a different kind of XC race in that it is a relay format, with 3 runners each completing 2 miles (twice around a 1-mile loop). We will be entering 2 or 3 teams in each of the "Gold" races, while the remaining teams will be entered in the "Blue" races.

6pm - Boys Blue Race
7:05pm - Girls Blue Race
8:10pm - Boys Gold Race
9:05pm - Girls Gold Race

I hope this works - Directions from Schroeder:

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Gold Sweeps

The Gold team managed to win all 3 races on Friday at the 6th annual Blue & Gold meet. Some of the highlights of the meet included Justin Reed becoming only the second underclassman to win the race - not since Nate won as a sophomore in 2007 has that happened. On the girls side, Val Palermo, became the only person to win twice. She and Amanda Paratore were over a minute under the meet record.

Full Results follow...

Boys
Reed, Justin 18:14
Meritt, Alex 18:20
Cannan, Tristan 18:29
Burgin, Will 18:35
Killigrew, John 18:44
Mallery, Peter 19:41
Eberth, Jake 20:04
Killigrew, Kevin 20:37
LaLoggia, Mike 20:41
Dana, Steven 21:05
Doherty, Patrick 21:14
Devries, Jacob 21:22
Infantino, Adam 21:39
McBride, Raymond 21:45
Dyson, Jacob 22:20
Ash, David 22:38
Crawford, Alex 22:49
Lipari, Philip 23:15
Buttaggi, Brian 23:27
Fargo, Noah 23:30
Paratore, Aaron 23:40
Wentling, Desmond 23:57
Terrana-Prince, Justin 24:13
Shaffer, Justin 24:13
Terrigino, Nick 28:25
Hamouda, Amir 28:26

Girls

Palermo, Val 19:41
Paratore, Amanda 19:47
Bailey, Alaina 22:30
Fitzgerald, Natalie 23:04
Wiseman, Julia 23:34
Edwards, Katie 24:43
Yursaitis, Sarah 25:00
Blose, Ashlynn 25:51
Ludington, Claire 26:06
Conrow, Megan 26:53
Conrow, Amber 27:39
Clemens, Isabella 32:32
Cekuta, Kara 33:11
Wehrle, Jenn 37:33

Blue & Gold Tomorrow

Tomorrow everyone gets to try out the racing shoes as we contest the 6th annual Blue & Gold intrasquad meet. The teams are being put together - watch for an e-mail telling you what color to wear tomorrow!

Practice starts at 5:30pm. I would expect the race to begin very close to 6:30pm.