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.