Manhattan Invitational
October 8th, 2005 at Van Cortlandt Park, New York City
presented by The New York Armory & New Balance

DyeStat on-site coverage by John & Donna Dye, Marc Davis and Don Rich

NOT THE SAME FAYETTEVILLE-MANLIUS.
MAYBE EVEN BETTER.

text and photos by Don Rich
DyeStat Northeast Regional Editor
PennTrackXC publisher

Fayetteville-Manlius duels in the woods with New Jersey's best teams -- left, Christian Brothers Academy, and right, Morris Hills.

Funny how things play out differently than you think they will. On paper, the mix and match, spread-the-talent seeding of the boys varsity races looked to be a sure way to confuse the rankings. And the girls' Eastern States - with eight ranked teams in one race - seemed a sure way to establish some truths.

Whoops.

The Boys, while questions remain, established that US#2 Fayetteville- Manlius NY may indeed be better than last year. And the Girls race, thanks to a 14-point near miss by US#1 Saratoga Springs NY, demonstrated once again that this is why you run the races.

In 2004, Fayetteville-Manlius pulled off an unprecedented 15-point sweep on the way to setting a new Vanny 2.5 mile team average of 12:48 - lowering the team average by a full ten seconds. Today, while the clock said it wasn't faster, may have been more impressive. Owen Kimple ran 12:39.7 for 2nd, John Heron and Tom Gruenewald were 5th and 6th in 12:54.8 and 12:55.1, respectively. Andrew McCann ran 12:59.7, and new 5th man Luke Fitzgibbons was 14th in 13:16.2. Average: 12:57. Add the wind, and rain, and arguably it was a better effort than their record.

FM coach Bill Aris agrees: "As I felt going into this meet, if we had good weather conditions, I think we may have had a shot." But it was the individual performance by McCann that most impressed Aris. Last week at McQuaid, McCann was ill and had a bad back. His sub-13 was just six seconds off his 2004 time, run in much better conditions. And he's not fully recovered from last week. "What he did today was a herculean performance." Aris also reserved some kudos for Fitzgibbons. "He did a terrific job in this muck. To throw him into a meet of this significance, as well as last week, it was another great performance."

Probably the most improved team... or shall we say, refocused team, was NE#5 Christian Brothers Academy NJ. After a surprising 14-second per man deficit to NE#3 Morris Hills NJ in separate races at the Shore Coaches meet in New Jersey a week ago, plus an unprovoked attack by a fan from another school that sidelined #4 man Justin Wheat, CBA ran much closer to their pre-season potential.

Behind Chris Horel, 3rd in 12:40.7, CBA beat Morris Hills by six points to go with their one-second per man advantage in team average. Coach Tom Heath says he and the team are even after he neglected to get them a race in September, and the team showed the effects on October 1.

"It's a step in the right direction. I'm proud of them. But it's not our best." CBA races at Brown next week, again, most likely, without Wheat again.

Individually, the best time of the day came in this race, Varsity C, by Justin Harbor of Flagher Palm Coast, going 12:39.7.

One surprise was the race by the Saratoga Springs NY boys team. They easily won Varsity E behind a one-two by Steve Murdock and Greg Kelsey, but their team average of 13:25 was the sixth best of the day behind FM (12:57), CBA (13:12), Morris Hills (13:13), Liverpool (13:23)and Warwick Valley (13:23).

In Varsity F, NE#4 Warwick Valley was a 22-point winner over SE#6 Brentsville VA, despite the 2-3 finish by Brentsville. Warwick Valley coach Tim St. Lawrence says that his only goal was to win the race. "We don't run races on paper. They go out differently. And we don't chase averages, because they can be deceiving. We just have to be ready when the time comes."

NE#6 Bishop Hendricken RI had a narrow escape from Shenendehowa NY in Varsity D, 56-58. One of those points came when Hendricken's Tom Webb won in 12:52.9, with Shen's Dan McManamon 2nd at 13:03.5.

Following their strong showing in taking 2nd to FM a week ago at McQuaid, NE#7 Liverpool NY won the Varsity B race by eight over Queensbury NY.

Previously ranked Ridgewood NJ won by three over Xavier CT in Varsity G. Coach Mike Glynn says everything was better than the race they lost to NE#10 Cardinal O'Hara on September 17th at Briarwood. They enter league and county competition before States.

SARATOGA SPRINGS GAVE AWAY SOME HOPE IN NEW YORK

Saratoga Springs NY is the #1 team in the US. Have been for more than a decade. With that position comes challenges. Say 20-30 mile-per- hour wind gusts over the final 300 meters. Driving, relentless, bone- soaking rain. Unsure footing. Oh, and Hilton NY, and Suffern NY, and Warwick Valley NY... and a bunch of other great girls teams that came as close as anyone has to knocking off this top team. But that's OK with coach Linda Kranick, who sees the depth of talent in the region and in New York specifiicially, as a good thing..."It makes it more exciting this way."

After winning Great American convincingly on 9/24, the nasty weather presented to every runner today concerned Kranick a little. "When it's this bad, things can go wrong."

With Warwick Valley's Aislinn Ryan (right) showing she has to be a favorite to repeat as Foot Locker champ while running alone to the 3rd fastest all-time 2.5 at Van Cortlandt in 14:04.2... it was a bit of a wait for the first two Saratoga Springs runners -- Hannah Davidson and Lindsey Ferguson, coming in 43 seconds later.

Saratoga's top two - Hannah Davidson (L) and Lindsey Ferguson.

The two teams who would come the closest to knocking off Saratoga -- NE#2 Hilton NY and formerly ranked Suffern NY -- would each place two runners in the top 30. Saratoga had three, including those low points provided by 2nd and 3rd, Ashley Campbell in 26th, Kipling Hill, 48th, and Brianne Bellon, 54th.

Then it was time to wait as the Manhattan results factory cranked out the results -- 133 for Saratoga, 147 for Hilton, and 193 for Suffern. In fact, seven teams were within 100 points.

While the top two Northeast Region teams finished right on the money, #3 and #4 were off their best days. Jackson NJ had two runners taking SATs, and with delays in the test, arrived within an hour of the race. And #4 Bronxville NY finished in 7th place, a point behind NE#8 Colts Neck NY. NE#6 Bay Shore would finish 10th. Unranked Warwick Valley NY was eight behind Suffern in 4th. SE#4 Eleanor Roosevelt MD was 5th, with SE#7 Tatnall DE in 9th.

Saratoga Springs now knows the task before them. There are teams in their own state who now believe the race they've been dreaming of is within their reach. But after years of winning virtually every big meet by a lot, Kranick takes this new challenge in stride..."when you have to work hard to get something, it means more to you."

Aris and St. Lawrence also think that New York and the Northeast are strong when it comes to teams. Aris believes that his state and region are much stronger. "Everything is taking a giant step up. That's the way they should be." And St. Lawrence takes it a step further... "In 32 years of coaching, I have never seen a top five in New York stronger than the current top five, and that includes Liverpool and Shenendehowa.