For the past couple of years, the Dobbs Ferry's cross country team has been going through a resurgence. Led by Patrick and Brendan Wortner, they almost captured the sectional championship, falling short last year, by just point, to a potent Bulldog team. Every expectation was, that they would again be formidable with their two best runners returning.
So, on a mostly cloudy and cooler day, the Eagles visited Irvington to race, for the first time in the newly revised league, on a new cross country course, which eliminated much of the need to run around the school and on it's paved roadways.
As expected, Julian Saliani and Patrick Wortner moved out in front, where they stayed the entire race. Just a little behind, Denis Montaruli was dualing with Brendan Wortner. Dobbs's number three George Epstein, who finished last year very strongly, had his hands full with Irvington's Sam Lindberg. Both of these runners were shadowed by the Dawg Pack of Brett Pastore, Sean Lippin and Taira Davey, with Reid Mitchel and Logan Muise not far behind.
At the finish line Patrick outlegged Saliani for first overall, while brother Brendan got by Montaruli for third. Lindberg reversed the trend accelerating past Epstein on the second half of the course to grab 5th overall by a nice margin. The Dobbs number three had to give it all to stay ahead of Pastore once they hit the track, with Lippin and Davey and Muise all running strongly behind.
In the end, the strong pack running of Irvington, which had 12 runners coming in before the Eagles number five, combined with Saliani's gutsy running on a bodged ankle and yet another excellent showing by both Montaruli and Lindberg were enough to put the Bulldogs in front of their rivertown rivals 26-33.
The girls race was expected to have much less drama, as the Lady Eagles are still in a building phase, relying on the excellent running of their soph star Sarah King to keep them close in most competition. The Lady Bulldogs, returning almost their entire team from last year, have picked up more depth from new runners and looked from the start to be too much for the younger Dobbs crew.
Right from the start, Annie Field moved out to the front and when left unchallenged by Dobbs Ferry's King just moved away from the rest of the field. King, who seemed to be struggling the whole race, had all she could handle with Sasha Zwiebel, who has really moved her running up to a new level this year. There was another pack behind the leaders with Edwina Picon, Megan Talay, Dobbs Ferry's Lauren Hanley and Christina Paparo going at it. Dobbs's other runners, Chloe Wang and Shana Yu were together with Irvington's Liz Hevern a little further behind.
By the halfway mark, Field had pulled out to a commanding lead, while Zwiebel refused to give ground to King, who she led right to the end. Picon began a move out of the second pack and up into the battle with King and Zwiebel. Talay, Hanley and Paparo formed another tight pack as they moved back up the course.
Coming around to the finish, Annie Field came out of the woods and accelerated to finish first by more than a minute over the next runner, which turned out to be Edwina Picon in an excellent return to form. Sasha Zwiebel was right behind Picon to take third. The Dobbs coach waved King to a slower pace, when it was clear she couldn't gain on Zwiebel. While this was not the Sarah King who placed fourth at sectionals last year, it was some impressive running by the first three Irvington finishers. Lauren Hanley ran very well for Dobbs, but Megan Talay had more in her tank at the end to take fifth. Christina Paparo and Hanley fought all the way down to the finish with Christina prevailing, taking sixth by just a three second margin. Wang and Yu managed to take the next two places for Dobbs with Liz Hevern right behind, the first of seven Bulldogs to finish before the Eagles number five runner. Those finishes gave Irvington the win by a healthy margin, 17-40.
Notable on the day, was how well a number of runners ran while injured or sick, including the top Irvington finishers Saliani, Field and Picon and most probably Dobbs Ferry's Sarah King. The Wortners again showed why they are ranked among the best in the section, while Denis Montaruli shows every sign that he is stepping up into the space left by graduating senior Ian Mathews. Icing on the cake was the frosh girls, running unopposed, having very strong runs and showing improvement in their times too.