Now it’s time to take a look at the boys. The boys races promise to be real close. Each class meet should be better than the next. This should be one crazy Halloween.

I’ll try and give you some of my thoughts on what will happen and as always feel free to thrown in what you think might happen.

Over at the armory track they have two articles you should check out. One on Pearl River coach Dan Doherty and his success.

The other article is on Mike Hickey and his training regiment.

Alright, it has finally arrived…Halloween.

Who will be bringing home sectional titles? Who will be breaking the tape in their respective rankings? I have no idea, but why not pretend like I do for a few minutes, after all it’s almost Halloween – the time for your imagination to run wild.

Make sure you check back later when I look over the boys results. I also may have gone a little overboard and tried to predict the scores for the top two teams, just for fun.

Here we go:

This is an early look at the sectional meet for the boys. It’s just a quick overview, I’ll have much more on this meet the rest of the week.

Class AA:
Arlington and North Rockland are the two best teams. Suffern and Scarsdale could potentially steal the title. The individual winner will be John Muller of Arlington.

Sorry it took so long for me to post, but I was away all day today. I’m sure most of you have heard by now or figured that it would happen, but Arlington won both the girls and boys titles in the Northern County Championships on Saturday. Apparently, the meet was at Lakeside Park in Pawling, I believe it was originally scheduled to be held at Bowdoin Park. Unfortunately we could not cover the meet, but you could check out what happened there and at the CHSAA sectionals by clicking here.

Nicely done with the predictions for the county meet. The majority of you figured that Pearl River would win the girls meet, while Scarsdale would take the boys. You also knew that Ursuline would take Westchester and North Rockland would take Rockland. However, Iona Prep only received two votes and that’s the team that took second in Westchester. Most of you, along with myself, thought that Suffern was the second-best team for the Rockland girls. However, North Rockland really excelled and took the second spot.

As for the new poll, it’s the same as the last poll, except I want you to tell me what area team has the best chance to win the sectional title. And as always, feel free to add in your own choices. Again, thanks for voting and be sure to check back later when I’ll have some info on the Northern Counties championship.

Another busy day of running yesterday. I’ll give you some of my thoughts of what went down at Van Cortlandt Park.

First, from a reporting stand point, I’m not a huge fan of VCP. Teams are located all over the park and when you’re trying to figure out the score and track down runners it gets a little hectic. Then when I tried to find people to talk to I would have to go back and forth across the field either looking for people or going to see if the scores were posted.

But  I was able to make due, and these are some of the things I came away with from Westchester:

After a pair of big meets like Westchester and Rockland yesterday, I just know the cross country public is left thirsting for more. With our priority given to writing our four articles on deadline, we weren’t given a chance to post anything substantial except for Dan’s quick update.

That and the World Series, then eating dinner and then a Fantasy NBA draft later and now I am posting this at ungodly time at night. At 11:14 p.m. in Hawaiian time…do the math (or just check the time stamp.). Busy night. So here’s a nice hardy, meaty rundown on some of what I saw and heard at yesterday’s meets. Enjoy!

I covered the Rockland County Championships yesterday at Bear Mt. and wrote a story about Shelby Greany winning her unprecedented 5th county title and Pearl River girls winning their 21st team title.

On the Boys race, I wrote about Mike Hickey’s quest to write his name along another great Pearl River runner in the record book and North Rockland’s big win.

Sean Halpin took first in 12:52, Manu Kumar second in 12:56, Max Robinson third in 13:18.

Scarsdale had two runners in the top 10—Ilkyu Lee (5th, 13:19) and Sam Kohn (10th, 13:26).

Scarsdale took first with 106 points and Iona second with 149. Byram Hills third 162 and Greeley 4th with 174. Fox Lane was fifth 177 and only ran with six runners. Dobbs Ferry finished a point behind. Fox Lane was missing its fifth runner.

Ursuline won with 39 points and Bronxville was second with 58. Sullivan took first in 14:56.71, Caitlin Hudson of Bronxville took second in 15:07.83.

In today’s paper we have a preview on the county championships today. Click below to take a look:

Rockland boys

Westchester boys

Westchester girls

Rockland girls

Alright, luckily I’m feeling a little better today and ready to post my predictions for the boys’ county meet. I feel as though there’s a little more up for grabs on the boys side and that should make it interesting.
Westchester:

Alright we’re only two days away from the county championships. Right now I’m going to focus on the girls side and then I’ll do the boys a little later. I wanted to post this earlier, but my wife and I had a doctor’s appointment and we all know how quickly those go.

Westchester:

• I know Bronxville struggled last weekend at Bowdoin Park, but this is the best team in Westchester. Even on a down day the team will win the county meet. Its five runners still  make up the best team in Westchester.

Over at the armory website, they have a piece where they focus on a runner and how they train. This week it’s Caitlin Hudson of Bronxville. If you want to take a look at it click here.

Be sure to check back tomorrow when I’ll try and predict what will happen at the county meets.

Here we go, another round of rankings for the boys. The season is in full swing and it has been pretty good so far. In each class race next week there should be pretty tight races. I don’t see any team blowing away anybody else at sectionals and it should make for a good two weeks of racing.

As for the boys, click below to view the rankings:

I’m posting my rankings a little early this week because counties will be on Thursday and I’ll be posting my predictions for Westchester, Rockland and the Northern County cross country meets tomorrow.

The Coaches Invitational gave us a good indication of what may happen next week. Click below to take a look:

That was an interesting day at Bowdoin Park yesterday. I feel as though we got a decent idea of where some of these teams stand.

Here is a quick overview of each race and some of my thoughts:

Boys:

Varsity I:

• We’ll know for certain, but Manu Kumar looks like he’s the best runner in Westchester. He won another race, this time in 16:49.17. He could very well be the county champ. “I wanted to use this to get a chance to learn this course since sectionals will be here,” he said.


• Was it me or did Suffern seem like it was running with something to prove? The team still didn’t have its full compliment of runners, but that was a much-needed first place finish.


• Mike Pereira is definitely the leader for Suffern. He’s been so consistent all season. The other runners have stepped up as well and when Aidan Galasso (4th, 17:10.46) and Johnny Mitchell (7th, 17:35.04) run like they did yesterday, this is a tough team to beat.


• The future of Section 1 running looks to be in good hands: Charlie Carr (6th, 17:29.68) of Brewster and Brendan Wortner (11th, 17:43.93) of Dobbs Ferry lead the way.

• Brewster has a good team that packs well.

If you haven’t seen it yet, take a look at my article in today’s paper. It talks about Fox Lane and Suffern bouncing back and North Rockland solidifying its team before counties. I’ll be back later tonight with my thoughts on yesterday’s races.

On armory track, my former colleague, Chris Hunt has an article discussing Manu Kumar, Suffern and Arlington’s success.

This is just a quick recap of what happened. I have some stuff to finish up before deadline, but I’ll be back later with a full recap.

Boys:

Varsity I -Manu Kumar of Yorktown took first in 16:49.17. Suffern won the team title with 42 points, followed by Brewster (72).

Varsity II – Fox Lane got back on track winning the team title with 76 points as Cord Sgaglio led the team taking first in 16:54.62. Mahopac just missed out taking second with 78. And yes – Fox Lane had its full team.

Varsity III – Arlington’s John Muller (16:03.25) finished first. Pearl River’s Mike Hickey took third in 16:19.96. Haddonfield took first with 58 points, Arlington second with 71, Byram Hills (209) took seventh and Pearl River (221) 8th.

Alright it’s that time again…time for a new poll. Before we get to that let’s look back at the last one. Interestingly enough, Manu Kumar of Yorktown and Gina Talt of Mamaroneck each received about 20 percent of the vote. I can’t disagree with those two selections. The two runners have come virtually out of nowhere to be racing with the better runners in the section. Katie Sullivan of Ursuline was next for the girls, while James McDonough was next in line for the boys

Now for the new poll….With the county meets only a week away, I want you to tell me either by voting or commenting on which area team you think has the best chance to come away with a county title.

You should check out my notebook about the upcoming battle in Class C. My other notebook talks about Brewster’ big league win. My third notebook talks about North Rockland’s success the last few weeks.

On the girls’ side, Matt Ng has a notebook on Brewster’s big league win. His Rockland notebook talks about Tappan Zee’s success in its league.

Fordham Prep also won its 9th straight Bronx title.

Alright, I’m back after a riveting debate between our two presidential hopefuls and some commentary. This debate was a little more entertaining and the two candidates did what they haven’t done the first two debates…DEBATE.

I always like these historical things, I find them really interesting. Presidential election years are always so fascinating. You know what else is fascinating? My Section 1 rankings (again, I know that’s cheesy, but it was the perfect lead). Anyway, here are my boys rankings:

This was a nice week for cross country. There was just one problem – the weather’s still a little too warm. With counties and sectionals only a week or two away it needs to be a little chillier than it would be perfect cross country weather.

Before I post I have one other think a little off topic. I saw this movie last night called Children of Men. I read the book and it was really good. I’m not spoiling anything, but it’s about the omega generation. And the movie – according to Cablevision – received four stars, so I watched it. Definitely not four-star-worthy. It was good, but the book blows it away. I know most times the book is better than the movie, but I just felt as though the movie left a lot of interesting facets of that society out. If you saw the movie, definitely read the book and if you haven’t heard of it I suggest you read the book and watch the movie. Sorry for digressing, but it was bugging me how disappointing that movie was. Anyway, posted below is one of the reasons why I think you read the blog – THE RANKINGS:

Below I listed some of the league results that were called in or we were able to track down. Not every team is listed, so if you have some results write them in.

Before you scroll down to view some of the league champions, here are some of my thoughts:

• Some of these leagues are really good, but others aren’t that impressive. Why are there only four teams in some leagues?


• What are the reasons behind making the leagues?


• Get a bunch of schools (no fewer than six) and put them in the same league and leave them there for a few years. Build up some rivalries between some schools and let them race against each other a few times – at leagues, counties, sectionals and probably one or two invitationals a year.


• Wouldn’t it be great to see the Pearl River girls and Bronxville girls square off against each other at least once a year?

Big day of league meets on tap for today. This should give us a good idea of where some of these teams stand. Make sure you check back later today as the results of the meets will be posted as they get called in. While we wait for them to begin, if any of you want to go out on a limb and make any bold statements now is the time.

Here is the link to the NY state rankings after a busy weekend of racing.

They don’t have the overall state rankings, but once those are up I’ll get them to you. Same thing with the boys, when it’s up and get that to you and we can talk about it.

Class AA

No difference up front with Suffern safely nestled in at the five spot. This is a good team, but its really going to need to develop the back of its rotation to move up. I still don’t think this team has hit on all cylinders.

Read more of this entry »

While the Manhattan invitational is the largest meet of the weekend and probably the largest meet of the season it wasn’t the only meet.

If you haven’t seen some other area results here they are:

Suffolk Invitational: The Pearl River girls won the Varsity A race in the Suffolk Officials Invitational at Sunken Meadow State Park. The Pirates top finisher was Chelsea Kushner, who took third with a time of 20:00. Right behind her were teammates Kerry Guerin (20:04, 4th), Molly Shine (20:14, 5th) and Kelli Van Houten (20:33, 6th). Pearl River had seven runners finish in the top-20 with Keeley Bateman (21:20, 13th), Tara Clinton (21:24, 14th) and Caitlin Lardaro (21:37, 16th).

In today’s paper there are two articles on yesterday’s Manhattan Invitational. In the first one I talk about Nick Hughes and his quick rise up the running ladder.

The other article talks about the continued success of the Bronxville program.

Overall it was quite the busy day over at Van Cortlandt Park. It’s amazing how smoothly the meet’s run over there considering they have thousands over runners compete. I think it’s tough to gauge teams at this meet because there are so many teams that you know very little or nothing about and it’s such a big meet, but I’ll go through the races and give you my thoughts. First we’ll start with the girls:

Varsity F Race:Bronxville won the Varsity F race with 82 points. Caitlin Hudson finished second in 15;29.24. Another strong performance by one of the best teams in Section 1. The team continues to pack its runners extremely well. Today Hudson was the first one in for the team. This probably wasn’t the best race this team can run, but it still won. Bronxville has so much depth it’s incredible. It has two 8th graders – Amelia Phillips and Meredith Rizzo who look very promising. This team continues to get better.

I just got off the phone with Jan Mitchell and found out that his Iona Prep and Ursuline teams won the small-school races at the 13th Annual Disney World XC Classic.

Results in PDF

Senior Sean Halpin race the fastest time at the meet (16:07) on a 5K course taking first overall. His teammate Kyle Shephard was sixth (16:45).

This is one of my favorite meets all year. Something about all the runners and the colors from their uniforms – it’s something else. Over at the armory they have a nice list of things to know about the meet. Here’s the link. If you want, my apartment’s only a couple of blocks away and we can all meet there after the meet.

I’ll try and post some more info today if I have time, but it’s my wife’s birthday so I have to get some stuff ready for it (like reservations to a restaurant and a present). If anyone has any suggestions I’m listening. One more thing before I forget: I don’t know how many of you drive down to Van Cortlandt, but if you do DO NOT park in the Burger King lot across from the park. They have become real strict about non-customers parking there and have been towing people.

Again there’s a new poll over to the right for you to take a look at. Thanks for voting in the last one. Apparently the consensus pick was Van Cortlandt, which received about 40 percent of the vote. Second was Bowdoin Park, which happens to be my personal favorite. Nothing against Van Cortlandt, but for Section 1 I’m a big fan of Bowdoin. I was not a big fan of WCC and Bear Mountain was okay.

As for the new poll, this is a tough decision, but with the season half over or so, I figured we could see what athletes you think have been the biggest surprise this season. I tried not to pick people who we all knew were going to be good, but some who have surprised us with their success. I could have posted more runners, but I wanted to try and limit it. But as always feel free to add any runners who you think have been a surprise. Don’t feel obligated to stick to the one’s I suggested.