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September 27, 2009 Edition - No. 5
The Eagle Harrier
Eagles Kiss Their Sister!
J-E and Holland Patent Tie Again
Baldwinsville, New York – Despite seeing it with their own eyes, the J-E Boys Varsity Cross Country team could not believe what they were seeing. Was this déjà vu? Wasn’t last year’s heartache from sectionals enough? Was the 88 – 88 tie score they were seeing real, and with Holland Patent no less? The Gods were clearly not happy with Jordan-Elbridge on this beautiful fall day.
The mirage of a tie with rival Holland Patent was no hallucination. It was true, plain and simple. J-E, despite placing two runners out of the top four places in the race, was once again defeated by the H.P. ‘pack’. With each team scoring 88 points, the tie-breaker is which team’s sixth man finished first. Holland Patent’s sixth man (Eric Stevens) was 44th and J-E’s sixth man (Mitch Alpha) was 66th. “It’s a cruel way to break a tie” said J-E’s Coach Roman, “but this is just they way it’s done”. Just behind H.P. and J-E was Marcellus (3rd – 96 points), C.B.A. (4th – 126 points), and Maine-Endwell (133). Tully was 6th with 153 points. There were 22 teams in the race.
Cody Stanton won his fourth consecutive race of the 2009 season. This time, Cody got to the lead early and held it. His 15.26 clocking on the fast, 3.0 mile B’ville course was his career mark for three miles. “I think I got out harder today than usual” said Stanton, “The start was much quicker than normal, so I just went with it”. Stanton is undefeated so far this season winning the Section VII Meet in Plattsburgh, the Chittenango Invite, and the league meet versus Cazenovia and Hannibal. “Cody is an animal right now” said Coach Roman, “he goes on a hunt each time he races, as he seeks the front of the pack and finds a way to win”. Stanton’s win streak is easily the longest in J-E cross country history. Senior Mike Marrero turned in his fastest time of his career as well by finishing 4th in a time of 15.41. Mike was battling Tully’s Ohure Sam for most of the race. Sam finished in 3rd place, a mere second ahead of Marrero who was 4th. Marcellus star Jesse Garn passed both Marrero and Sam down the closing 400 meters of the race in what was a blurr to Marrero. “I never saw him coming, it was me and Ohure, then all of a sudden Jesse just flew by both of us” said Marrero “There was no catching him”.
In a comeback of sorts, junior Greg Bader turned in a terrific race effort finishing in 14th place in 16.10. “I really wanted to break 16 minutes” said Bader, “but I’m pleased anyway”. Bader finished ahead of all of Marcellus’ runners except their number one man Jesse Garn. Marcellus’ Tom Ricardi has a 164 speed rating and Mike Quercia has a 163 to Bader’s 157. “Greg ran simply great” said Roman, “I’m more than pleased”. An immediate concern to the Eagles should be that two C.B.A. runners finished in the two places ahead of Bader. C.B.A.’s senior and two-headed monister Matt Giannino and Tom Voorheis finished 12th and 13th respectively, and are scheduled to visit J-E on Wednesday for a key Liberty National Division showdown.
Sophomore Steve Slonosky continued his steady climb toward the top was J-E’s fourth man again in 28th place in a blazing fast time of 16.47. This was Slonosky’s first flirtation with 16 minutes. “Steve really moved up today and beat some really fast kids, including Tully’s Ben Palladino” said Roman, “he is getting scary fast”.
Cody Stanton leads the pack at around the 2 ½ mile mark of the race Saturday. Pictured just behind Cody are teammate Mike Marrero, Tully’s Ohure Sam, and Marcellus junior Jesse Garn. |
Tom Poppe, flirted with the 16 minute barrier, but fell just short finishing the B’ville course in 17 minutes and 9 seconds (41st place). Poppe’s terrific effort took 33 seconds off of his 2008 B’ville time. Tom found himself in familiar company as he battled Holland Patent’s Steve Lisi (39th place/17.06), and Eric Stevens (44th place/17.13), just like in the 2008 sectionals. In addition to these two H.P. rivals, “Popps’ was with Marcellus rivals Nate Heath (40th/17.07) and Owen Dean (45th/17.14) just like in last year’s league championship race. “Tom is coming on” said Roman, he’s a lot faster than last year, but so are his key opponents”. “There’s no doubt that I like what I see out of Tom”. Mitch Alpha and Derrick Cheney ran well, but did not score for the Eagles. Alpha, whose race became the tie-breaker, finished 66th in his career fastest time (17.49). Derrick Cheney was 80th overall in 18.11. Carlin Coomey was just out of ‘tee shirt’ position in the Boys JV race as he finished in 13th place in 18.04. The top ten runners got tee shirts. “Carlin ran well and actually was in my top 7 of the day” said Roman. Robert Patterson was 45th (19.35) and Billy Direnzo was 89th (21.19) out of 123 runners.
