Central Square Harrier

September 10, 2007                                                                                                   Edition - No.2

The Eagle Harrier

Eagles Stun Central Square Field

New Battle Cry: “Why Not Us”?!

Central Square, N.Y. – Saturday’s race began with the usual high expectations as accompanies the first race of the season.  Most of J-E’s runners had a case of the ‘jitters’ until the starter gun fired.  At this point, the high flying Eagles flung off their summer rust and went to work.  The results were dramatic: Jordan-Elbridge found themselves in a battle for a victory with two of the state’s largest, and well-respected cross country programs.

C.N.S. was the eventual race winner with the low score of 63 points followed by Baldwinsville’s 68.  J-E, nearly one-fifth the size of these AA schools was a close third with 76 points.  CNS has been touted as a ‘Federation’ caliber squad for the 2007 season.  The score may in reality have been closer than this, as many of the front runners of the race went off course, but the bottom line was the Eagles held their own.  Finishing behind the Eagles were ESM (100), league foe Skaneateles (111), Central Square (161), Chittenango (170), Fulton (179), Corcoran (216), and Nottingham (224). 

     The top two J-E runners on Saturday set personal bests in the race by finishing for the first time in their careers in the top five.  Sophomore Mike Marerro and senior Jeff Donohue came out of the woods in second and third places respectively, and both broke 18 minutes (17.58 and 17.59) on the steamy day.  Marerro was pleased about his race, especially when he passed at least ten runners who had veered off course at about the 2-mile mark at a tough, uncontrolled intersection.  Donohue, who was ahead of Marerro until the wrong turn, recovered in time to take third wasn’t as thrilled with his race, but knew he would have been in the top five of the race even without the fiasco of the off-course runners.  “I couldn’t believe what I was seeing when Mike and Jeff emerged from the wooded trails in 2^nd and 3^rd places” said Coach Roman, I knew that Jeff was in about 8^th place and Mike was probably 14^th until the unfortunate turn of events”. 

     Cody Stanton was one of the J-E runners negatively affected by going off course.  “I don’t know what happened, I had just passed Jeff and was running with the race leaders when all of a sudden I heard people screaming to turn around.”  “I took two wrong turns which sucked”.  Stanton finished the race in 17^th place (18.57) and his quest for a top-ten was thwarted by the miscue.  Senior Donato Direnzo was J-E’s next runner finishing in 21^st place (19.13).  It is unknown at publication time what affect the wrong turns had on this J-E harrier.  Direnzo was not pleased with his race though, and his displeasure will certainly be directed in some more passionate training this week.  Freshman Tom Poppe rounded out the J-E score with a 33^rd place finish in 19.58, two full minutes behind Marerro.  “I was very pleased that Tommy competed so hard in his first 5 K race” said J-E coach Roman, “but for us to be a truly competitive team, we’ll need to close the gap between runners 1 through five”.

     Jake Griffin and George Brauchle battled the sticky conditions and heat and finished 40^th and 48^th respectively (20.51 and 21.23).