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October 24, 2009                                                                                                                                                                  Edition - No. 12

The Eagle Harrier

Cato Curse?!

JE Flounders to 3^rd in OHSL

Cato, New York – Most have heard of the ‘Curse of the Bambino’, the ‘Billy Goat’ Curse against the Cubs, and 

perhaps even the curse of King Tut’s tomb, but who has ever heard of a ‘Cato Curse’?  According to Coach Roman, 

the Cato-Meridian course has some hidden demons that have jumped out of the dark forests of Cato and bitten his J-E 

harriers for many years running.  “Every year we come here, something bad has happened” said Roman, “last year it was 

Mike’s foot injury”, in 2002 was the ‘Tim Hughes’ fall, this year, senior number one man Cody Stanton was overcome by 

fatigue and a light-head and didn’t finish”.  “I couldn’t get my troops out of there fast enough”.

     Despite the supposed ‘curse’, J-E did finish a very respectable third place with 123 points.  

There were 27 teams competing and 168 runners in the race.  Marcellus was the race winner 

with 67 points and league opponent C.B.A. was second with 107 points.  “We lost to CBA, are 

you kidding, just wait to see what happens to our state ranking now” exclaimed junior Greg 

Bader.  “We gotta come back stronger for sectionals” added Bader, “I mean, we stunk today, 

me in particular”.

     Four J-E runners did make all division teams as a result of their outstanding races.  Mike 

Marrero and Steve Slonosky became First Team All Division runners, with Marrero the runner up 

in the league and Slonosky the 10th fastest from the Liberty Division.  Mitch Alpha and Greg 

Bader were Second Team All Division runners with Alpha being the 13th fastest from the Liberty 

and Bader the 16th.  Unfortunately, Cody Stanton was not able to make an all division team 

due the rule that all stars are selected from their performance in this single race, not how 

they’ve fared all season.  “This selection process is flawed and really ridiculous to think that 

Cody is not an all star” said Coach Roman, “he’s beaten every runner in this race all year”.

     Stanton, would begin the race strong and was in third place, right along side eventual race 

winner Jesse Garn, until the dreaded hill loop in the wooded section of the course.  “I felt so 

light headed and dizzy at this point that I had to walk” said Stanton, “I knew that I wasn’t going

 to make it”.  After emerging the woods well back of teammates Marrero, Stanton dropped out 

of the race.  This action puzzled the many onlookers and fans of both Stanton and J-E.  “You 

wouldn’t believe how many times people asked what was wrong” said Roman.

     Senior Mike Marrero led the Eagles to the finish line in 4th place with an outstanding time of 

17.33.  “It was about as tough of a race as I’ve ever had” said Marrero, “between the mud and 

me being exhausted from the ACT Exam that I took this morning – get me to my bed”.

     Steve Slonosky turned in another spectacular race finishing in 14th place in a mud-slowed 

time of 18.18. “I loved everything about this course, the hills, and the mud” said an ecstatic 

Slonosky.  “I mean, I beat Bumkoth”!  Slonosky was referring to the number-one man for the 

state-ranked Jamesville-Dewitt squad, Bumkoth Jiac, who normally is challenging for race 

victories.  “Steve’s been running so strong lately” said Roman, “he clearly is reaching a peak”.

     Mitch Alpha was J-E’s third man for the first time in his career, finishing only seven places 

behind Slonosky in 21st place (18.40).  “Do you want to see me dance” Alpha queried after the 

race, “I felt great”.  In one of the most entertaining videos of the 2009 season, an exuberant 

Alpha could match any contestant from the reality dance shows now popular on television.

     Junior Greg Bader was almost speechless about his race saying only that “I need to man up 

in our next race”.  Bader was six places behind Alpha in 28th place (18.58).  “I felt off all day 

and I needed motivation” added Bader an hour after finishing his race.  Six hours later, Bader 

goes on to say: “I won’t mess around at Sectionals like this, I have my routine that I’ve done 

the past two years to peak.  I’ll be ready, I want it”.

     ‘Shoeless’ Tom Poppe was J-E’s fifth man and had to deal with another crazy, curse-like 

catastrophe in Saturday’s race.  “My shoe came half off during the swamp loop” said Poppe, 

“I had to stop and put it back on”.  “By the time I got my shoe on I had lost all of my momen

tum and tons of places” added the muddied J-E harrier.  Poppe finished 59th in 19 minutes and 

43 seconds.  

     Carlin Coomey was J-E’s last varsity runner placing 88th in 20.32.  

     J-E’s Junior Varsity squad finished 9th with 214 points, ahead of the squads from Fulton, 

Chittenango, Skaneateles, and Hannibal.  Junior Derrick Cheney was an outstanding 5th overall in 

20 minutes and 5 seconds.  “I passed five guys on the last loop” said a beaming Cheney, “I 

thought I was going to run like poop”.  Cheney ran an almost perfect race moving up from 13th 

at the mile, to 10th at two miles, and 5th at the finish.

     Jared “Jeter” Bard was 45th (22.16) and quietly pleased about his highest scoring position of 

the season.  This was the first time that Bard was the second JV scorer.  Robbie “Rosa” 

Patterson was 55th (22.41) and was nursing a sore ankle.  Billy “the Hit Man” Direnzo was 67th 

(23.09), and ‘Jumpin’ Jack Gugel was 80th.  Gugel was clearly not at his best and was a late add 

in to the race.  “Jack was not feeling well and not supposed to race, but a late pep talk from his 

parents convinced him to participate” added Roman.  Gugel ran the entire race in his training 

shoes which severely hindered his ability to negotiate the mud of the Cato course.  When asked 

if he wished he had racing spike on, Gugel responded with a grin and a nod of the head.

     What’s next for the Eagles is simply the biggest race of the year – the  November 7th 

Section III Championships.  “If we get Cody and Greg back to where they usually are, and have 

races out of Mike, Steve, and Mitch like today – we’re state champions, it’s as simple as that”.  

“If we run to our abilities, we’re golden”.  Hopefully for the Eagles, there is no “Billy Goat” curse 

at Jamesville Beach.

                                         ~R. W. Roman~