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New York Regional
November 29, 2008 at Bowdoin State Park, Wappingers Falls, NY
New York state teams (meet combined with Northeast)

Two teams and five individuals per gender qualify for NXN Nationals December 6, 2008 at Portland OR.

a stepping stone for Manlius girls
Meet is prelude to possible 3-peat in Portland for US#1 Fayetteville-Manlius NY team;
they make it look easy with 3-4-5-6-7 finish and 13-second spread.


by John Nepolitan

WAPPINGERS FALLS NY 11/29/08 -- When you are  the two time defending National Champion the region meet should be a formality and a simple stepping stone to the ultimate goal of a shot at a three-peat.  And that is exactly what the NXN NY Regional meet at Bowdoin Park was for the Manlius (Fayetteville Manlius) girls team, placing their scoring 5 runners in places 3-4-5-6-7 and within 13 seconds of each other they made it look easy. 

There was never a doubt from the opening gun what team was in charge as the green clad Manlius harriers put themselves at the front of the action led by New York State Class “AA” Champion Courtney Chapman.  Chapman had not lost to a New York runner this season was up front battling with Danielle Winslow (Adirondack Runner – Queensbury HS) for the lead while her team mates put themselves into the top 12 mixing it up with top runners from other scoring teams and those looking to gain individual births in the National Championship. 

By the halfway point Manlius had all 5 of its runners in the top 9 with Sam Roecker and Molly Pezzulo of Burnt Hills and Amanda Moreland (Broomfield) mixing it up with the USA #1 team and race leader Winslow. The power and strength that many weeks of hard training would soon show in what was shaping up to be a dominating win by Manlius would shift to a blow out in the late stages as they slowly began to pick off those who were trying to challenge them and slide all 5 runners ahead of every team's 2nd runner. 

From the start the team battle was over and the same thing could almost be said for the individual race as well as Winslow jumped right to the front to challenge Chapman who had nosed her out the last time they met at the Eastern States race at the Manhattan Invitational in October.  Two weeks ago at the New York Federation meet Winslow tried to apply the same tactic when she faced 2007 Footlocker 6th  placer Emily Lipari (Roslyn).  In that race Lipari would pull away over the final 800 meters for the win leaving Winslow to claim 2nd while Chapman and her team were sitting out the Feds. 

Danielle Winslow wins individual honors

Winslow did not have Lipari to contend with as she was in the Bronx earning a qualifying spot in the Footlocker Championship, but Chapman and the Manlius pack to contend with along with defending NXN NY Champion Roecker. Through the opening mile Winslow was at the front with Chapman right on her heals, but by the time the race came back from its highest point and headed to the two mile post Winslow had opened a commanding lead.  By two miles Winslow was all but safe in front while behind her Roecker was moving well and closing in on Chapman.  Roecker would catch Chapman with about 800 meters to go and slowly draw away while behind the pair the Manlius pack would be closing in and deposing all others along the way.  By the finish Winslow would build up a 22 second cushion on Roecker crossing the line in 18:00.8 to claim the #6 place on the all time Bowdoin Park list.  Roecker would come home 2nd giving her Burnt Hills team a leg up on the battle for the 2nd automatic qualifying place and behind her the Manlius parade came over sealing the team title. 

"Camouflaged" in different uniforms, Saratoga beats Burnt Hills for second automatic qualifier

With Molly Pezzulo right behind the sea of green in 9th place overall it appeared that Burnt Hills was well on their way to grabbing the 2nd automatic qualifying position.  As a steady stream of runners in a rainbow of uniforms came over the line it appeared that nobody else would be able to match the up front power of Burnt Hills and it seemed like the New York Federation Champs were on their way back to Portland. 

But a closer look at the names of the runners crossing the line made it obvious all of a sudden to all, runners and fans alike, that the battle for the 2nd team slot was not sewn up.  The Kinetic (Saratoga) team had all of its runners in different tops making it difficult to track them during the race and as a result flew under the radar right up to the end.  With all of its scoring runners over the line in front of Burnt Hills 3rd runner it was clear after the fact that Kinetic had earned a trip back to Portland Meadows for the 4th time in 5 years.  For now Burnt Hills must sit and wait to see if the 3 times they had beaten Saratoga through the year along with a Federation and New York Class “A” crown will be enough to earn an at large birth.  At large selections were to be announced Sunday.

Shenendehowa boys overcome fall by #2 runners

The Clifton Park (Shenendehowa) boys may not have been as sure a thing as Manlius to claim top team honors, but with three straight New York Federation titles behind them and an undefeated season against New York schools it seemed pretty certain that they would extend their season one more week.  The big question was who would claim the 2nd automatic birth and who would have to sit and wait for the call on Sunday to see of they had booked tickets west for next weekends NXN Championship. 

Manlius was not about to sit back and wait for somebody to hand them plane tickets; they were going to go take them and put themselves near the front of the pack early.  Team leader Alex Hatz, winner of a close NYSPHSAA Class “AA” race with Clifton Park’s Alex Leuchanka jumped right to the lead and started to apply pressure early.  Leuchanka would struggle throughout and never really be in position to use a big kick with carried him to wins at the ultra competitive Suburban Council Championships and the New York Federation title.  In the opening meters things seemed to be going well for Manlius with Hatz out front and the remainder of the team moving through the field when at about the 800 meter point disaster struck as Paul Merriman, normally the #2 man, would go down with an injury and be forced to drop out.  Quickly alerting the troops, coach John Aris let everyone know that they needed to step up and grab a few more places and that is exactly what they did.  Brendan Farrell would respond with a 10th place finish (7th among team scorers) just missing catching a hurting Leuchanka, but more importantly ahead of Clifton Park’s Dan Harris.  A 10 point Clifton Park lead at the half way point would drop to an 8 point win at the end, but more important was the 2 point lead Manlius had on the HFL Cougars at halfway would grow to a 12 point cushion and an automatic birth by the finish. 

At the very font of the race Hatz was never really challenged and powered home to an 8 second victory crossing the line in 15:52.7, the #12 time in course history, over Federation runner up Max Straneva (Chenango Valley).  Straneva tried to go with Hatz and even late in the race appeared to be closing in some ground on the leader, but Hatz was not going to give up his spot and the valuable 1 point that went along with it. 

With the possibility of a number of teams gaining possible at large births into the National meet, filling the spots of runners who would compete as individuals could go deep into the results, the wait starts for the all important phone call.

How they recall the day

Bill Aris (head coach Manlius) – “ I am especially pleased with the boys today, they ran their asses off (and finished second to earn an automatic qualifier for national finals).  My favorite meet in the whole country is the Federation meet.  It distressed me greatly we had to make that decision (to pass up the Federation meet this year) it was the right decision for the sake of  our kids.  Five progressively intense races in 6 weeks is too much for kids I feel and we  decided to go get ready with two weeks of training… There was a gamble there that we would come out flat, rusty – we didn’t…

"Everything we do today is a prelude to next week, if we make it or not we have to plan that we will, the plan with Alex was very simple – Don’t run back to the field; run your race.  Run with courage and don’t rely on your kick.  Run the whole thing total and complete and risk failure.  He ran hard today, the first time he ran hard like that in a cross country race…Brendan Farrell ran out of his mind basically replaced where Paul (Merriman) would have been.  After that my hat goes off to the 3rd -4th and 5th runners, Andrew Roache ran the race of his life, Mark McGurrin a sophomore who is in his first year of cross country showed courage and dug down deep and ran out of his mind today and that was backed up by senior John Cico who has been consistent all season….There was a book a few years ago called “Next Man Up”, if you followed our season our 4th girls Katy Cisco broke her leg at the sectional meet and was out she is right there with the cast on supporting the team, bottom line is next man up that’s it.  Everybody counts no less than anybody else. ”

John Aris(assistant coach at Manlius) “Mark went down right in front of me and I immediately screamed to our guys that they have to pick up 5 – 10 places and they responded.”

Alex Hatz (boys individual winner) – “That was the plan to go out hard, it went well for me..I had no idea (that Merriman had dropped out) until the finish it really came from the back guys they came through for us.”

Danielle Winslow (girls individual winner) – “ I was really surprised when I finished and I looked back I was surprised by the gap…I just really wanted to come out here and win, but I wasn’t sure because at Manhattan Courtney Chapman outkicked me.”

Linda Kranik (Saratoga coach) – “ They did a great job today…Madison Carr, an 8th grader who finished 3rd for us today, did a great job. She has been running 6th/7th…We missed making it to Portland 1 year when we should have made it, so that year we were able to buy a Christmas present.”

Mark Thompson (head coach Shenendehowa) Unfortunately Alex (Leuchanka) got a cramp and that is the first time it happened to him all season, yet he still ran faster than he did two weeks ago at the state meet…Our top 5 were within 38 seconds of each other, we have not been that tight all season so I think we ran great… The pressure is off we can train for a couple of days and relax and enjoy the trip..On paper it is really hard to say who has qualified and who has not to say where we could possibly place in Portland.  I think now we can just relax and refocus and have some fun.”






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