More Counties Recap…
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- October
- 24
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!
Dan covered Westchester, so I will only first give a few thoughts on that meet and focus more on Rockland.
Westchester:
Rockland:
- I was given the impression that Mike Hickey is a quiet sort and not a easy interview but his insight and thoughtfulness really came across when I spoke to him yesterday. It really showed how fast his pace was when Mike Pereira tried to keep up with him but ultimately faltered.
- Pretty tough rivalry between the North Rockland and Suffern boys. Kinda like Mets and Phillies. One team has the upper hand, but on any given day? Either could win. They’ll see each other at sectionals but if they get too enamored with beating each other, Arlington could and probably will just blow by both of them.
- Shelby Greany might have not set the record time she was shooting for but more importantly for her she said that she finally felt right and her normal self. And that means, she’s right on target for where she needs to be at sectionals and beyond.
- These Pearl River runners must grow on trees. It must a family thing…A lot of big running families, tradition, etc. I wanted to write in the paper about this but ran out of time and space. Dan Doherty knew that he could use some more depth with Molly Shine a little sore going into today’s race. So he called up Maria Kohlbrenner from JV (she started the season on the freshman team) into her first varsity race, Counties. After a mile of trying gut it out, Doherty pull Shine out who needed to ice down her leg. Kohlbrenner ran a great time of 19:20.96 and took 16th. Her finish clinched the Rockland title because came in as their fifth runner. From freshman team to Varsity County Champs…That is quite a year….”I wasn’t expecting how I ran today and how I did today,” Kohlbrenner said. “Because I knew Molly (Shine) should have been ahead of me and when she wasn’t, I ran that race for her. I knew she needed me so I ran the hardest.” And so did her teammates. What a great story, I really feel bad I didn’t put this one in the print edition.
- The North Rockland girls really impressed me. Taking second over Suffern meant a lot for them. With seven runners in the top 20, if there wasn’t a dominant team like Pearl River around like in this season, they really would have had a legit shot at a title.
- If you are a fan of Rockland girls cross country, you have to be proud about all the terrific underclassmen runners that will be around for a couple more years.
- What a great day for racing. Not a cloud in the sky. Not too cool, not too hot. Just perfect. A well run race too..Thanks to all the coaches and officials for doing a great job.
As you wake up and read this, feel free to opine and give your take…We’ll be cranking out a new poll soon…We should have a update on Saturday about Northern Counties…By the way, I got Chris Paul, Al Jefferson and Danny Granger with my first three rounds of Fantasy NBA picks…I am definitely beating Dan and the rest of the Journal News crew in our fantasy league…
This entry was posted
on Friday, October 24th, 2008 at 5:13 am by Matt Ng. 
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Dan Marra began working for the Journal News this past September. He graduated from Manhattan College in 2004 and from John F. Kennedy High School in 2000. While at Kennedy, he ran cross-country and track. He is excited to be covering the sport that he participated in throughout his four years in high school. Dan loves all sports, but has, what some may say, an unhealthy obsession with the New York Giants.
Matthew Ng has been with Varsity Central and The Journal News sports department for the past two years handling high school beats such as skiing, bowling, girls soccer and tennis. Ng is a 2004 graduate of Syracuse University's S.I. Newhouse School with his major in broadcast journalism.
Casey Tolfree spent her high school career playing Section 1 sports at Dobbs Ferry and is excited to have the opportunity to cover them for the Journal News. After graduating from St. John's University, Casey joined the Journal News staff in December 2007 and has covered a variety of sports including basketball, softball, and volleyball.
what are you talking about, kumar barely lost to him and he was the underdog going into the meet.
Halpin had Kumar right where he wanted him – when Halpin went Kumar never reacted – if I am not mistaken Kumar was the pre-race favorite and Halpin was kind-of in the picture.
Enough said.
Halpin was not exactly just in the picture, he was one of the two top favorites going into the race with a negligible 1 point SR disadvantage to Kumar. After his great stretch run at the County meet last year, he was known to be very good at VCP. Kumar boosted his SR by 3 points on Thursday, so he ran very well. Halpin just ran better, especially closing in on Kumar down the stretch. Kumar’s tall lanky frame may be better suited for Bowdoin where he ran so well unchallenged at the Coaches meet, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see him post one of the top 5 times there on Friday while putting a big distance between him and the Class A runners.
P.KING has lots to say [must have too much time on his hand]the WCC course is gone probably for good and why would you run on some schools course, not sure what purpose that would really serve?
Tully rankings – WOW they serve a real purpose?
Cross Country is the purest of sports but now critics as P.KING live and die by some computer generated data [personally I am getting tired of reading your almost daily gripes].
Van Cortlandt Park is the Mecca of Cross Country running in the Northeast – probably why both the Big East and Heps [besides other Conferences] will be running there championships on Friday at a course that has been used for over 70 years – yep I want to see races on some made up school’s course. Would you race “Big Brown†on the county fair race track – NOT.
Timing problems at the County Championships is caused by the officials at the line not having the experience of shifting chutes quickly and having the athletes rapidly move along until their bar codes are collected. Has absolutely nothing to do with VCP – it would happen with a field of 270+ at any venue if the crew working was not use to handling that number.
Most of the parents and athletes had a great time last thursday with hundreds of people all over the course cheering on their schools – folks were all along the flats, cow path, bridge, back hills and people were three deep along the straight. When you compete at Bowdoin officials are always yelling at the spectators and threatening disqualification or just taking the fun out of the sport. Those who were at VCP [like myself] had a wonderful time and most of the 800 or so runners had a great experience also.
FYI both Varsity races team and indivdual were awesome.
P.KING should volunteer to help out and stop crying daily.
Grow up already your blogs are becoming lame.
Oh and again “runner,” you tired old sad sack of a pout, if you can really be so clueless as to describe the Tully rankings as “purposeless” that says about all we need to know about you. I’d be interested to hear what the other XC experts like agred have to say about that, and I know what the real XC experts from upstate think about the value of the SRs, but thanks for giving us a chuckle.
So I’ve achieved expert status!!! I’m so excited to get to such a level. It is what I have always aspired to.
Agreed: The speed ratings are not all that accurate at VCP the way the formula is set up. The fastest kids have lower ratings than they should and the rest of the kids get higher ratings b/c the SR’s are based on runner vs. runner and a 2.5 mile layout doesn’t allow the normal separation. Just go by the times at VCP. Bill Meylan himself says that.
Agreed: The speed ratings are EXTREMELY accurate as an overall tool on 5K courses, but are not the say all, end all. Again, Mr. Meylan says that within 3 or 4 speed ratings is a toss up on any given day as that is only 9-12 seconds.
Agreed: The timing problems of the Westchester County meet is something that needs to be fixed, but won’t be solved simply by moving to Westchester. They use the same officials.
While you make a legitimate gripe with the timing here, you have become the boy who cried wolf. Nobody is taking it seriously b/c you gripe about everything on a weekly basis. Maybe if we were more positive, your points about this topic would be received rather than people starting to read your posts with a negative reaction before reading a single word.