Cross country

Off and running

Tri-Valley hosts cross-country invitational

By RICHARD A. ROSS

GRAHAMSVILLE, NY - With bright sunshine and just a hint of cool air to waft across the gorgeous cross-country course, runners from nine area schools competed in their first race of the season at this year’s Tri-Valley invitational on September 1.

More importantly, the event gave area athletes a baseline from which to begin the arduous work of improvement that will define the quickly unfolding season.

With many students still lacking the number of practice sessions to actually compete in a varsity race, Tri-Valley coaches Joe and Missy Iatauro created a club race for them to participate in. The club race was 1.5 miles. It was followed by a freshman race, a varsity race and a junior varsity race of two miles, 3.1 miles and two miles respectively.

Harriers from John A. Coleman Catholic, Ellenville, Chapel Field, Monticello, Spackenkill, Delhi, Tri-Valley, Livingston Manor and S.S. Seward were on hand for the early season run.

With incomplete rosters in the varsity race, the team results must be taken with a grain of salt as each school had deployed some of its key runners in the earlier club race. Tri-Valley won the girls team title with 53 points, although the two top runners were Monticello’s Jessica Fingers (20:00.4) and Marisela Acevedo (20:39.9), two of coach Pete Wysochanski’s veterans who will be a part of a strong Monticello girls team. Rebecca Concors and Emma Cohen finished one-two in the club race. John A. Coleman Catholic was the only other school in the race that fielded a complete team. They took second with 67 points.

Tri-Valley’s Courtney Roosa (20:54) took third, followed by teammate Rachel Sanborn (21.16). Also running were veterans Shannon Hornbeck and Caroline Bertholf. Teammate Naomi Weise was not on hand for this day’s run.

Roosa begins her cross-country season following a great spring in outdoor track that saw her go all the way to the Nationals in Greensboro, NC where she placed 18th in the 2000 steeplechase with a time of 7:22.04. Roosa regards cross-country as one of her favorite seasons.

The rest of the top 10 included Spackenkill’s Sara Calager in fifth place (21:29), Anne Shults from Coleman (21:32), Dee Dwyer from Spackenkill (21:33), Chapel Field’s Lyndi Fielitz (22:42), Delhi’s Bethany Athaws (22:55) and Coleman’s Katelyn McTwayne (22:58).

In the boys varsity race, Monticello captured the team crown with a score of 17. They were led by Section Nine standout Brendan Devine, who set a course record with a time of 17:23. Teammates Robert Venditti (18:44), David Wilbur (18:56) and Tom Gonzalez (19:18) captured second through fourth place for the Panthers.

Greg Lewis, Livingston Manor’s sole runner, took fifth (19:23). He was followed by Chapel Field’s Adam St. Germaine (19:26), Monticello’s James Dzurica (19:39), Spackenkill’s Scott Coletto (19:39.8), Spackenkill’s Jing Ba Fan (19:52) and Tri-Valley’s Jeremy Kinney (20:06).

Medals were awarded to the top 25 finishers in the varsity races and the top 15 in the other races.

Visit riverreportersports.com for a complete list of the varsity finishers and an album of meet photos.