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Mixed Bag in League OpenerPosted Wednesday, September 09, 2009 by Canis Latrans Here it was, not only the first day of school, but also the first cross country meet of the season. You couldn't have asked for better conditions to kick off the 2009 season. For the first time in quite a while there was a significant league change. This year, all the Rivertowns are finally competing together in the same league which will make for some spirited competition for local bragging rights. Hasting's Yellow Jackets were first on the schedule.
The boys team couldn't wait to get going and started their race some 10 minutes ahead of the scheduled 4:30PM kickoff. Significant losses of graduating seniors, Ian Mathews and Matt Menard (the 2 & 3 team runners) really made it important for the remaining and new team members to pick up the load, if they were looking to make it a Threepeet while defending their position at the top of the heap as Sectional Champions. It was no surprise to see Section Champ Julian Saliani move to the lead early and stay there unchallenged. What was interesting, was the great pack running behind him. Saliani cruised in first, finishing the run in 16:44. Denis Montaruli, showed he's certainly overcome the injuries that hobbled him at the end of the last season, finishing a strong second in 17:24, over a minute faster than his time last year. Sam Lindberg looked good finishing just behind Montaruli in 17:28, while Zach Siegel motored in for fourth overall in 17:34 just ahead of Hasting's Jared Scharf, who broke up the Bulldog string taking fifth with a strong finish. However, right behind Scharf, the Bulldog harriers closed ranks with Brett Pastore (17:49), Sean Lippin (18:05) and Taira Davey (18:07) all crossing the line before the next Yellow Jacket, Mike Stein (18:07) came in. As always, the Hasting's boys were game, but they just didn't have enough horses and the Bulldog boys took the win 16-47. Last year, the Irvington girls were just able to steal the win from Hastings by a narrow 27-30 margin. Both teams were returning almost intact and spectators were looking for another close match up and that's exactly what they got. Annie Field set the pace early on and moved away from the pack, leading the way up the course while the Hasting's trio of Nora Howe, Emma Sander and Emily Polstein followed in her wake. Irvington's girls were packed up behind those three, with Sasha Zwiebel, Megan Talay, Christina Paparo and Liz Hevern all running well. Hasting's Lauren Wilt trailed them with Julia Canning leading another Lady Bulldog pack. Coming into the home stretch Annie Field led the way, finishing strongly in 19:15. The top three Hasting's girls looked great and unchallenged, took the next three places, separated by just a couple of tenths, in 19:59. Sasha Zwiebel never faltered in an excellent run finishing fifth overall in 20:36 and it looked like history might repeat itself, until Hasting's Wilt outpowered the rest of the Bulldog team in an exciting finish to take sixth overall in 20:40. Christina Paparo (20:42), Megan Talay (21:50), Liz Hevern (22:33) and Julia Canning (22:47) got the next 4 positions. Hastings avenged last years loss, thanks to the great pack running of Howe, Sanders and Polstein up front and the inspired and gutsy finish of their number four runner, Wilt, making the Yellow Jackets the 27-30 victors this year. After the races, Coach Barry had lots of praise for the way the boys ran, in particular Denis Montaruli and Brett Pastore. He also singled out Logan Muise and Reid Mitchell, who both showed lots of improvement. He also thought the girls as a team ran well and was very complimentary of how well the tiny Hastings squad ran. Some of the bright spots for the girls side were Lindsay Shapiro, finishing seventh for the girls in her very first race and freshman runners Charlotte Follari, Courtney Buell and Kiera Murphy all having nice races. It's just the start of the season, lots of racing over the next couple of months, so we'll look for continued growth with both teams. This weekend, The Big Red Invitational at Somers H.S. All the major teams in the section will be there, so a great chance to see how the team does early on against those they'll likely run against at the end of the season.  |
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