Cross-country

Bulldog girls roll on at OCIAA championships

By RICHARD A. ROSS

BEAR MOUNTAIN, NY — Nothing confuses people more than trying to decipher the results of the Orange County Championship race.

That’s because the race includes 22 Class A, B, C and D schools, all running against each other. Unlike other races where results are broken out by school size, the OCIAA championships simply pits runner against runner and school against school. In short, the best runners in the league are right in the pack of 123 racers. Schools are limited to seven runners each. Remaining runners run in the junior varsity race.

That said, the Sullivan West girls placed fifth, finishing only behind Class A Warwick, Monroe Woodbury, Washingtonville and Class B Cornwall. That was the one disappointment for Bulldog coach George Shakelton. He had hoped to beat the Green Dragons but several of the Bulldogs did not run their best races.

Aislinn Ryan of Warwick (16:59) won the 3.1-mile race. Ryan is ranked second in the state.

She was followed by Tri-Valley’s Heather Iatauro (17:44) and Joanne Smith of Monroe Woodbury (17:50). Sullivan West was led by Jamie Clifford (19:19), who finished 18th, April Ackermann (19:34) at 23rd, Jessica Wagner (19:51) at 28th, Michelle Manzi (20:24) at 36th, Amanda Ward (20:39) at 40th and Moselle DiPane (21:13) in 58th place.

Ward was running a terrific race but came up with a cramp in the last 800 meters. It was the exact place on the course where she suffered a cramp last year.

“We beat all the other C and B schools and a number of A teams as well, including Valley Central, Newburgh, Kingston and Middletown. We had six girls in the top half of the race,” coach Shakelton said.

Mike VanWagenen (16:33) finished 19th in the boys race as Sullivan West came in 12th overall.

On October 31, the Bulldogs will compete against the other C schools in the Section IX meet on the same Bear Mountain course.