What's New

September 11, 2010                                                                                                                                                  Edition - No. 2

Welcome to the Jungle!

Eagles Blazing in Large School Race 

Jamesville, N.Y. – No one on the Eagles knew that their first race of the season was 

going to be so difficult.  Coach Roman knew, but chose to keep this secret under his 

vest.  J-E was easily the smallest school in the race, the only Class C school of the 

eleven racing.  The second Varsity Boys race of the day was the unstated ‘seeded’ 

race of the day with five AA sized powers, two class A schools, three class B schools

and J-E.  There were eight state-ranked schools in the race.  Jordan-Elbridge finished eighth out of eleven in the 

race, but benefited greatly from the challenge.  The times that the Eagles ran in Saturday’s race was pushed by 

the swift pace of the larger schools.  Merging J-E’s times into the first boys varsity race held on Saturday would 

have the Eagles finishing in third place with a nice trophy.  “I knew there would be no team award Saturday” said 

J-E coach Roman, “but the benefits of competing with such large schools will be seen in the weeks to come”.  

“We didn’t and won’t back down to anyone”.  The race was won by West Genesee H.S. with 65 points, followed by 

CNS with 89, McQuaid – 104, Marcellus – 119, Liverpool – 120, Baldwinsville – 124, Hilton – 229, and then J-E 

with 169.  Behind J-E as ESM – 229, Oneida – 273, and Homer – 279.

     When the dust settled, J-E’s first man was none other than freshman ‘phenom’ Jack Gugel.  Gugel, who had 

been recovering from a double stress fracture, was finally allowed to run at full speed.  “I felt so good” said Gugel, 

“I felt as if I were flying”.  Gugel finished the race in fourteenth place in a blazing fast time of 16.41.  Jack was 

the fastest freshman on the day by forty seconds.  His time on the Jamesville Beach course compared to the 2009 

sectionals would have qualified him for states.  “He’s a special runner for sure” said Roman, “I heard many in the 

crowd commenting on Jack’s race”.

     Teammates Greg Bader and Steve Slonosky finished in 29th and 31st places respectively, both in 17.18.  Bader 

didn’t seem surprised that Jack and Steve ran as well as they did and said: “Are you kidding, these guys are for 

real and have worked hard”.  “I’m not going to make any excuses, Jack just beat me by being faster today”.  

Slonosky moved up through the field and nearly caught his senior teammate at the finish line.  “I got out a little 

too hard today” said Slonosky, “but I recovered and had a decent race”.  

     Senior Tom Poppe ran his personal best time for a 5 K race on Saturday finishing in 43rd place (17.40).  

“I felt great, ran great, and am psyched” said Poppe.  Poppe has been able to  train and race without his bronchial 

inhaler this season, but ran with it just in case.  “Pops is a huge key for us this year, and to have him within 

twenty seconds of Greg and Steve will make us formidable” said Roman.  

     Scott Sullivan scored in his first varsity race and was J-E’s fifth man, making a successful return to cross 

country after a year away from distance running to play football.  Sullivan was 66th in a time of 18.55.  “I probably 

had the worst cramp that I’ve ever had in my life” said Sullivan just after his race, “I was hurtin’ big time over the 

last mile of the course and couldn’t move”.  Just behind Sullivan was senior teammate Derrick Cheney (67th/19.00).  

Cheney made up huge ground on Sullivan over the second half of the race Saturday.  

     Junior Rob Patterson was J-E’s seventh man, and had to complete about half of the race wearing only one spike.  

“I stepped in some mud and my spike stuck and my foot slipped out” said Patterson.  “It was weird running with 

only one shoe”.

     J-E’s Junior Varsity squad finished in 9^th place out of 15 complete teams in a similarly competitive race.  J-E was again the smallest school in the race.  Junior Ben Cheney had a terrific first race of his cross country career by finishing in 32^nd place (18.53).  Cheney’s time places him as J-E’s fifth fastest and will enable him to run on the varsity ‘seven’ next Saturday at V.V.S.  Cheney has been promised $20 for each race that he beats his older brother Derrick, but it is unclear at this time if a faster time in a JV race qualifies for the money.  Alex Suslik 41^st (19.12) in his first cross country race as well.  Suslik’s time was only twelve seconds behind Rob Patterson’s varsity time.  The next three JV scorers were

sophomore Jared Bard (97^th/20.44), senior Carlin Coomey (69^th/20.47) and freshman Dylan Whittico (105^th/20.50).  There were 220 total runners in the race.  “Carlin was hurting pretty bad at the mid point of the race” said J-E’s Roman, “he is still healing from his sinus surgery from last month”.  “I was pleased that he even wanted to run”.

     J-E’s last four harriers were Nick Byrnes (166^th/22.51), J.P. Patterson (169^th/22.58), Jay Paquette (171^st/23.03), and Nick Muehlberger (181^st/23.56).  All four of these J-E runners were competing in their first 5 K races of their careers.

     It should be noted that freshman Jake (J.P.) Patterson has twice outkicked Coach Roman’s son Ryan across the finish line.  As Patterson approached the last quarter mile of the race, he spotted his newly acquired rival from Baldwinsville.  Patterson asked his cheering teammates to keep his approach quiet from Roman so he could sneak up on the unsuspecting freshman and possibly outsprint him.  Mission accomplished as Patterson squeaked by a mere second and looked very pleased by his effort.

     Next up for the Eagles is the sectional preview race at V.V.S. High School in a week.  This will be another tough 

test as there are no class divisions to separate schools.  “We will once again be facing schools from all division sizes 

– this only helps to prepare us for sectionals when the playing field is leveled by competition against only schools of 

like size”.  “What do they say, what doesn’t kill us only makes us stronger”.  This is the way of J-E cross country.