Cazenovia Harrier
Cazenovia Harrier
September 19, 2006 Edition No. 3
The Eagle Harrier
Just Like Kissing Your Sister!!
Top 10 for Donohue. Brayton, Merrill are on the move.
Ludden, Westhill Up Next for the Eagles
Cazenovia – So far, the 2006 season for the J-E Eagles has been one of mediocre results. J-E finished fifth out of 6 teams with 91 points. 2005 League and Sectional Class B Champion Westhill won the race with 37 points, followed by Fabius (73), Canastota, the 2005 Class C Sectional Champ, was 3rd (75), league foe and host Cazenovia was 4th (80 points). Homer was the only squad that trailed J-E (154).
Friday’s race around the pastures and trails of the Cazenovia College Equine Center was another race that might have been exciting, except the fact that the Eagles just don’t seem to have the killer instinct that is needed to effectively compete against the caliber of opponents that they’ll see on a weekly basis. “If you don’t race with passion and heart, you rarely will succeed” said J-E Coach Roman, “Friday, we simply didn’t engage the enemy”. “We can be a much better racing team and I hope to see this Wednesday when we run against Westhill and Bishop Ludden in our first dual meet.
Once again, the Eagles were led by junior Jeff Donohue who finished in tenth place overall. Donohue completed the very tough course in a time of 18 minutes and 12 seconds, two places and 24 seconds ahead of fellow junior Donato Direnzo who was 12th (18.36). Once again, Donohue was disappointed with his race and said that he thought he could have been a lot better. “I was upset that I couldn’t track down that third Cazenovia kid down the stretch of the race” said Donohue. Cazenovia senior Josh Naylor held off Donohue by three seconds after Jeff made his move down the closing stretch of Friday’s race. Direnzo just shook his head when queried about his race. “I’m not sure how I felt or if I got out too hard or too easy”. What is clear though, is that Donohue and Direnzo race better when running together, and the J-E juniors were together for more than half of Friday’s race before Donohue pulled away and Direnzo faded a bit. “I was frankly a bit surprised at the 24 second gap between the two” said Roman, “I hope that Donato can stay closer on Wednesday”.
Next in for the Eagles was senior Shelby Brayton who finished in 22nd place, fifteen seconds ahead of normal J-E third man Jake Griffin. “Shelby has been a great leader as of late, and he really puts everything he has into a race” said Roman. “Brayton was the 11th leading scorer on the squad last year, and now he’s running in the 3rd position”. An excited Brayton let out a loud primal scream when he crossed the finish line, just ahead of Westhill junior Eric Moore. “He should be excited” said Roman, “he’s been working hard, and his enthusiasm is contagious”.
The next two runners in for J-E were junior Jake Griffin and senior Kyle Merrill who finished in 23rd and 24th places respectively (19.39). Griffin, J-E’s normal number three runner came across the finish line about ½ stride ahead of Merrill, who was competing in his first official race of the season. “People should remember that last year, Jake was our 10th man, and now he’s our # 3 or # 4 runner, a huge improvement”. “I was psyched to see Kyle racing as he’s capable of” said Roman, “we have to remember that he was our squad’s number five runner last season, but he’s missed much of the pre-season”. “He’s obviously got the talent, and he’s showing big improvement from each week of training”.
Freshman Mike Marrero was J-E’s sixth man, finishing in 33rd place in a time of 20.11. Kyle Bard, a senior, was 43rd place in 20 minutes and 46 seconds.
J-E’s J.V. runners were:
45th Cody Stanton 21.07
50th George Brauchle 21.31
64th Kyle Becker 22.55
65th Matt Sullivan 22.55
75th Brendan Hogan 25.03
78th Dylan Kirk 25.47
NEWS NOTES: J-E races Wednesday against Westhill and Bishop Ludden at Santaro Park in Syracuse. Freshman Cody Stanton was only 21 seconds from a varsity position. J-E travels to the B’ville Invite on Saturday. J-E has its only home meet of the season next Wednesday vs Hannibal and Skaneateles. J-E freshman Matt Sullivan won his age group Saturday in the Jordan Alpine Classic, a 8.5 mile grueling test of fortitude through the hill and dale of the region.
J-E senior Shelby Brayton (photo above, left) walks down the starting line trying to inspire each of his teammates just before Friday’s Cazenovia Invitational. Photo above to the right, J-E juniors Donato Direnzo (left) and Jeff Donohue (right) cruise down one hill and are about to climb another at the .75 mile mark of Friday’s race.