So, since I’ve seen most of the team’s run and three weeks, while it’s still early in the season, is long enough for me to have some idea about what’s going on in this sport,I’ve decided to rank the top 10 teams in Section 1 and then break them down by class and county underneath.

I’ll do the girls first then the boys a little later today. Enjoy:

Sorry for the late post, I meant to write yesterday, but I had “family stuff” to do and by the time I got home I was beat and went straight to sleep.

I’m going to briefly run down all the meets this weekend and give you some quick highlights:

Dewitt Clinton:

• Iona Prep has a very good top two runners. Sean Halpin took 5th in 17:08.22 and Kyle Shepard took 6th in 17:08.97. The team came in second, and the back runners have definitely closed the gap.

Okay, so let’s take a look at some of the results from the past weekend and try to figure out what to make of them. It wasn’t the most ideal weekend for running with the rain and mud, but I remember there were times I ran Bowdoin and it was snowing out.

Here’s a link to view the boys results at Warwick.

Suffern ran great in taking the Varsity I race with 55 points as Warwick (73) took second, Mahopac (121) five and Dobbs Ferry (128) six. Mike Periera had another strong race as he took 4th in 16:12. And it looks as though Johny Mitchell (10, 16:41), Tyler Frigge (11, 16:42) and Aidan Galasso (12, 16:43) are pretty formidable. Kevin McKenna can run better and if Terrence Galassois your 6th runner that’s pretty strong. A great follo-up performance to Suffern.

Mahopac still has a little ways to go. Joe Abed El Latiff (6, 16:20) and James McDonough (8, 16:33) will be up near the front all season, but the team needs to find some more consistency on the back end.

Big day of running this past weekend. I was at the Gressler Invitational yesterday and wrote a story on the meet that you can check out here.

If you want to check out some quick highlights of the other meets that area teams competed in click here.

I have to cover a bike race now, but I’ll be back later today to recap the weekend. Thanks for reading and be sure to check back later.

The cancellation of the Suffolk County Coaches Invitational had a trickle down effect on other races.

The Suffern boys won the Division I race yesterday at of the Warwick Wave Mania with five finishers placing in the top 20.
Led by Mike Pereira, who finished fourth overall (16:13) on the 3.09 mile Warwick Valley High School course, the Mounties beat out 14 other teams with a score of 55.

Some quick points on the meet I’ll be back with more info later.

• Clarkstown North beat Fox Lane in the Varsity II boys race. It was tied at 55 and North won the tiebreaker as Alex Wittenberg was the next runner in between the two schools as he took 27th in 20:11.12. This is North’s first invitational win since 2000. Cord Sgaglio won the race in 17:43.93. Russell Vignali of North took second in 17:54.99. There’ll be more on this in tomorrow’s paper and the notebook on Thursday. But this was a big win for Clarkstown. The team came to run.

Give North credit the team ran well. Now this opens the door for a lot of teams in Class A. An already tight class got a little tighter. Fox Lane didn’t have its full compliment of runners, but as Fox Lane Coach Chris Dossena said, “You have to run with the guys you have.”

I know these are a little late, but if you haven’t seen the Section 1 rankings at the armory website click here to view them.

After you take a look at them, here are some of my thoughts:

Boys 

Class AA

Arlington has yet to run in any major invitational, but we all know how good this team is. North Rockland takes a big step early in the season. At the start of the season it was definitely behind Suffern. Now a few weeks later North Rockland looks very impressive. Suffern is good and I think it will be flip-flopping with North Rockland all season. Mahopac, while winning the section is a long shot, it is going to give some teams problems and take away a lot of points from teams.

In case you haven’t seen the paper yet, I wrote a notebook on Suffern’s High School’s unique rivalry on the team. You can also read this notebook that I wrote on Hamilton High School bringing back a cross county program. At Mahopac, the team has been surging to the top and this notebook talks about the resurgence of the program.

On the girls’ side, Matt Ng has a notebook on the Kennedy track team and its two star runners. In Rockland, his notebook discusses Pearl River’s success down in Philadelphia this past weekend and how that bodes well for the team.

Here’s a link to the armory website so you can check at the CHSAA rankings.

I agree with it for the most part and with its assessment of Iona Prep. Sean Halpin and Kyle Shepard are very talented, but the team needs more depth.

Fordham Prep is a good team, but it needs to develop some more strength on its back-end.

In case you missed it:

Today in The Journal News 
This past weekend 
Girls rankings week 2 
Boys rankings

If you click below you can see the results of yesterday’s dual meets.

Just a couple of quick points:

Alexander Hamilton won its first dual meet in over 30 years…congratulations to them. There will be more on that team in tomorrow’s notebook.

If you haven’t taken a look at the rankings over at the armory click here.

Click below if you’d like to read my thoughts on them:

Okay another week of racing, another set of rankings. You can take a look at them here at the armory website.

A few highlights on the girls’ side. Suffern is ranked 8th in the state, while Bronxville and Pearl River are on the bubble to crack the overall top 10. The two could very well end up in the top 10. Bronxville was there last week at 10, but this week it dropped out, which is a little surprising considering it finished second to Arlington (5) at the Bob Pratt Invitational at Sunken Meadow. Anyway, here’s the rankings by class:

Sorry for the late post, but I had a busy day. My wife and I went apple picking over in Rockland and then I HAD to watch the Giants game, but let’s take a look at the weekend’s events:

Suffern invite:

So after some heavy research by my crack reporting crew, Shelby Greany did set the Section 1 record at Bear Mountain yesterday by one hundredth of a second. She actually had the old record, which she set back in 2006 in 17:26.7. Yesterday she ran 17:26.64. She is currently seventh on the overall list. And like i said she actually feels her best right now:

In case you missed it, today in the paper I wrote an article about yesterday’s Suffern Invitational. You can take a look at it here.

There’s some more info from some of the other invitationals that we compiled so you can take a look at by clicking here. 

I just have some quick points then I have to go back and finish my work, but be sure to check back later tonight or tomorrow for a lot more info:

Suffern invite

Both the Suffern boys and girls won the Suffern invite. The boys look strong with Mike Pereira, Jimmy Mitchell and Aidan Galasso. Kevin McKenna had an off race and this team still won pretty easily. Is there any runner funner to watch than Shelby Greany? She runs so effortlessly. She finishes a race and she looks ready to go at it again. And get this, she said now she’s in the best shape of her life…scary

The North Rockland boys are charging fast. The team placed all five runners in the top 10 again in the Varsity C race. Here’s a link to all the race results at Bear Mountain. With Chris Carrington and Nick Hughes at the top and then the next three runners right there, the county meet should be interesting.

Mahopac (boys and girls) are legit. The boys lost by a point and the girls placed fourth. It’s unfortunate that Mahopac has to go against Arlington in both the section and county. This team is good with Joe Abed El Atiff and James McDonough.

It took a little longer than expected and they’re not perfect. But my South/Central Westchester notebook that talks about Irvington is finally available online if you want to take a look at it. The formatting got a little messed up in the transfer, but it’s there.

The Rockland girls’ notebook has also arrived. It talks about the success of the North Rockland team so far this season and what the beginning of the season means to them.

I always think people like ranking stuff, so….here’s another one:Over at armory track, they have a ranking of the teams in Section 1, and it’s broken down by class. I was going to do my own list, but I was going to wait until next week just because so many teams didn’t race and it’s only one week. But since they have it, let’s talk about it. Clink the link above, and then take a look at my thoughts: Read more of this entry »

Today marks the first day of the cross country notebooks. They will appear every Thursday for the rest of the season. For the boys, the Northern Westchester/Putnam Notebook talks about the rise of Yorktown runner, Manu Kumar. My Rockland notebook focuses on Nanuet’s John Sweet.

Varsity Central will be on at a new time this week: 7:30 p.m. You can watch the show by clicking here.

Along with info from around Section 1, I thought some of you might be interested in the talent down in Long Island. Newsday’s Marcus Henry came out with the preview edition for Nassau and Suffolk Counties today.

A huge day for dual meets around Section 1. There were 27 scheduled races. I would like to thank the coaches for being patient and calling in their results. There is a lot to digest here but a lot of the results seemed to re-enforce a couple things from this past weekend…

Click below to see the results of yesterday’s meets.

And in case you missed it:

Today in The Journal News
Big Red Invitational 
Saturday’s invitationals 
Red Raider 

Read more of this entry »

If you click here you can view the boys rankings. They are not broken down by class, just the top 25. Next week it should be broken down by class. But, regardless, there are two Section 1 teams that cracked the list – Suffern (10) and North Rockland (20).

A couple of quick points:

The first state rankings for the season are out. You can check them out here. A couple of things to note:

There are two teams in Section 1 ranked inside the top 10 – Suffern (8) and Bronxville (10), while Pearl River is on the bubble.

If you missed it in yesterday’s paper I wrote a story on The Red Raider Run that talks about North Rockland’s Chris Carrington that you can check out here. The story mentions how his last two track seasons ended with injury and how he’s coming back strong. It also talks about North Rockland’ potential this season, Fordham Prep trying to continue the success from its track season and the North Rockland girls’ outlook for the season.

Today, Matt Ng, has a story on the Big Red Invitational that took place over in Somers yesterday. He mentions how Pleasantville’s Libby Lazare could have some competition up at the front of the pack from Harrison’s Emily Singer. He also writes about Dobbs Ferry and the Wortner brothers, Patrick and Brendan, and Somers’ Rob Gorecki and Yorktown’s Manu Kumar.

Down at Van Cortlandt Park there were some interesting results in the Regis invitational, but nothing I think we can take too seriously. It seemed as though Irvington did run with Ian Matthews, however he was not in the results, but finished ninth in 14:16. Iona Prep ran but I don’t know with who. Sean Halpin and Kyle Shepard were not in the standings so I don’t know. So, when you look at the results be aware that it seems as though they are inaccurate.

A triumphant Patrick Wortner was giddy…It’s his first. It’s all very understandable.

“I’ve been running the same race for the past three years… “I’ve been working hard all summer and I felt I had this,” Wortner said. “I just felt that this is the start of something big for me. I am really focused on trying to be the best in cross country.”

“I feel like I am ready to lead my team to victory,” Patrick said. Our goal this year is to win sectionals.”

He was absolutely on Cloud 9…talking about how his win could inspire his team and how he wants to lead his team to victory…it was his moment. I guess Dobbs Ferry can’t be a surprise sleeper pick anymore.

A couple teams like Somers were without seniors because of the ACT test. The young Tuskers’ boys should use this race as a stepping stone…

Yorktown’s Manu Kumar (3rd) and the Mahopac boys team had a good race in the D-1 which was dominated by Arlington…Mahopac had Joe Abed El Latif (6th), James McDounough (8th) and David Barile (10th), three runners in a tough field in the top 10.

A budding rivalry? Libby Lazare from Pleasantville carried the lead in the midway point of the D-2 race. She says that she was going all out early. But then the mud played a factor. Harrison’s Emily Singer kept pace then passed Lazare as she slipped going up a hill…Singer thought Lazare turned her ankle…Libby says she’s fine…Her coach Luke Sotherden said that Libby had her spikes on but just had a unlucky day. “Better it be a day like today…then at Sectionals.” He said Lazare slipped twice in the race.

There was some confusion about the girls D-2 results…Lazare and her teammate Natasha Chapovalova might have accidentally switched tags.

I interviewed JFK’s Jessica Kendzor, who was 4th in the D-2 race. The theme yesterday was underclassmen with breakout performances…add her to the list….Look for her to do well next week when JFK hosts their own invitational.

Feel free to sound off…and check out the story in tommorrow’s paper or online…

FYI- LoHud.com posts all our stories for the day after 2:30 a.m….for those night owls who want to catch it early….

Randolph Invitational: At Freedom Park in Randolph, N.J., late Friday night, the Pearl River and Bronxville girls each won their respective divisions. Pearl River narrowly edged out A.L. Johnson by one point to win the Division 2 race. Chelsea Kushner took fourth place with a time of 19:52. Ursuline’s Katie Sullivan was second with a time of 19:31, while the Koalas took third place. Bronxville’s Caitlin Hudson finished second and led the Broncos Division 1 win. Hastings finished in third place.

My Thoughts: Bronxville coach Jim Mitchell said it was a unique experience for his girls to run in a night race. Throw in some fog, rain through the woods and it’s quite trip. Pearl River’s win was impressive, especially with a very good Ursuline team in the field.

Suffern boys finishes second in Shaker Invitational: At the Shaker Invitational in Latham, Suffern’s boys cross country team finished second with 46 points. Queensbury, the third-ranked team in the state finished first with 35. Shenendehowa, the second-ranked team in the nation finished third with 99 points, but was racing with an incomplete team.
Suffern’s Mike Pereira finished third in the 3.04 mile race in 16:25. Other Suffern finishers were Kevin McKenna (8th, 16:46), Johnny Mitchell (10th, 16:51. Aidan Galasso (12th, 16:54) and Terrence Galasso (13th, 16:55).
“We went up there specifically to take a loss and we almost stole the race,” Suffern coach Joe Biddy said. “This was a good race for us.”

I’ll leave this one for Dan to comment on….

Jim Smith Invitational: At Sunken Meadow Park in Kings Park, the Suffern girls won both the junior and senior races. Suffern’s Shelby Greany won the senior race with a time of 19:10.1 in the 5K race. Her teammates Christy Goldmann and Carol Dugandzic finished fourth and sixth respectively. Suffern’s Ursula Svoboda won the mile and a half freshman race with a time eight minutes and 32 seconds. Suffern’s Samantha Randazzo was fifth in the junior race.

My Thoughts: A good showing by the Mounties at the site of this year’s state meet. Take a wild guess who holds the fastest current 5K time at Sunken Meadow?…Rhymes with “rainy”…Greany was only 1.3 seconds behind the record pace she set at the 2007 Suffolk Coaches Invitational.

That’s a terrible title, I know, but I’m wet and tired so we’ll have to deal with it. As I left my apartment this morning the morning show informed me that it would be scattered showers – and I quote – “That won’t ruin your weekend, so don’t worry about it.” Obviously, we all know how that prediction panned out – considering I’m all wet – four hours after I left Anthony Wayne State Park, which is weirdly situated right off the Palisades.

Now on to the meet: The North Rockland boys team was pretty impressive. I was especially impressed with Chris Carrington. Considering how poorly both track seasons ended for him, I was curious how well he’d bounce back. It turns out – pretty well. With him and Nick Hughes on the top of that rotation it’s going to be pretty tough to beat North Rockland. You can check out all the results below.

Fordham Prep looked good. I knew Mike Jennings would be good, but the rest of the team looked strong. It’s early in the season, so I expect all these times to get better.

After what I wrote about finding a potential sleeper in the Big Red Invitational, I figured I should see what you think. What teams could surprise some people this year? I posted a poll on the right. If you don’t agree with my choices feel free to write in one of your own or tell me why you disagree.

I tried to pick teams that were not defending champs or were not picked to do much this season. Some teams that won last year are not favored to repeat, but if you think that’s a mistake and its as good as last year’s group then let me know.

Feel free to take a look at some past posts that you might have missed:

Working for the weekend
Wednesday’s cross country results
Mega Seven-Team Dual Meet
Good start to the season
Today in The Journal News

Tonight will mark the beginning of the invitational season for the area schools. The Red Raider Run will have some pretty good schools competing in it. I think it’ll be interesting to see how well North Rockland and Fordham Prep do.

Tomorrow the Big Red Invitational will be held at Somers High School. We should get a chance to see Mahopac, Dobbs Ferry, Somers, Brewster, Carmel, Yorktown and a few other schools. Of course Arlington is going. But I think this could be an interesting meet because a lot of teams that are competing either have some questions marks, lost a lot from last year, or are young. If we were looking to find a surprise team in the section this could be the meet that could give us an idea.

I’ll have to check on the Regis Invitational and the Villa Bears Invitational because I thought some area teams were running – Irvington and some others – but I need to double check. I’ll let you know.

So, as I was scouring the internet I came across this article written by Sean Martin of the Times Union that talks about the Shenendehowa boys’ cross country team. Apparently the team is ranked 4th in the country according to Harrier’s magazines Super 25. I just thought you would like to take a look at what people have to say about the defending federation champs.