Home Harrier

September 28, 2006                                                                                                                                                                 Edition No. 6

The Eagle Harrier

HOW DO YOU LIKE THEM APPLES?

First Win Comes In Destruction of Hannibal

Jordan, N.Y. – The Jordan-Elbridge Boys Cross Country Squad chalked up its first win of the season in a rout over winless Hannibal Central yesterday, before an unexpectedly large home crowd.  The final score was J-E 15 and Hannibal 48.  The Eagles put five runners across the finish line before Hannibal’s first, and this was done without normal third man Jake Griffin, who was pulled from the race with an injured knee.  Skaneateles H.S. defeated the Eagles by the score of 22 – 33 in a race that was much closer than the 11 point margin would indicate.

      The Eagles once again were led by the tireless Jeff Donohue, who battled Skaneateles junior Sam Smolenski all the way around J-E’s hilly, 3.0 mile course.  Smolenski won the race, but not without a huge effort, as Donohue dogged the Laker harrier throughout the race.  “I really wanted to catch Sam”, a tired Donohue said just after the race, “but it felt like I was surging the whole race and he had an answer for each of my surges”.  Donohue ran 18.12 on the J-E Course which is quite a fast time since the course was running so slowly with the soggy footing and warm temperatures.  Smolenski won the race with an 18.04 clocking.  J-E’s Donato Direnzo likewise saw himself in an early battle with Smolenski, but then settled on the competition with Laker freshman Calvin Davis.  The two were neck-and-neck until the last mile of the course when Davis, a mere rookie in the distance of varsity cross country, pulled away and put a twenty-second gap between him and Direnzo.  Direnzo was asked how he was feeling at the 2 ½ mile mark as his image flashed across the television during the post-race video session, and he replied: “I just wanted to hold on to 4^th place as I had used all my energy just trying to stay with Calvin”.  “I wasn’t having too much fun at this point”.

 The biggest part of the race was waged by both teams’ third, fourth, and fifth runners, and victory or defeat hinged upon which team got their supporting runners across first.  And what a battle it was.  Shelby Brayton was J-E’s third man on this great day of racing and he took the lead over a pack of Skaneateles runners at the 1 ¾ mile mark, and it looked like the J-E senior would pick up the hugely important fifth place.  “I always run faster when there are people around or a camera filming, and our photo-boy, Kyle Alpha, was at the field house filming and this motivated me” said Brayton, “but basically I was dead”.  “I had absolutely nothing left when Skaneateles junior’s Jeff Cregg and Dustin Plunkett passed me going down the hill just past the 2-mile mark” added Brayton, also called ‘Red’ by his teammates, “but at least I tried”.  Cregg finished 5^th in a time of 19.04, followed by Plunkett in 6^th place (19.10), and Skaneateles’ Jim Peloza in 7^th (19.16), thus effectively sealing the victory.  Three J-E runners finished in positions 8^th – 10^th with Brayton leading freshman Mike Marrero and senior Kyle Merrill across the line.  Brayton ran 19.18, the same time as Marrero.  Merrill finished with a 19.34 clocking.  “This was really the whole meet, said J-E coach Roman, “if we hold on to those 3-4-5 positions, we win”.  “Losing Jake Griffin to a knee injury didn’t help matters” added Roman.  Griffin said he had banged his knee Tuesday evening in pitch black conditions searching for his runaway cat.  Ironically, he banged his knee on former J-E great, Jeremy Cornue’s picnic table.  “I was running along O.K. until I had to make a turn, and the stress on my knee just shot pain through my body” added Griffin.  “I told Cornue to move his table”.  Cornue, who was all over the J-E course on Wednesday cheering for his adopted teammates offered to move his table to the front of his home.                                       J-E freshman Cody Stanton was 6^th man (13^th overall) in 19.55 continuing his surge to become a varsity runner.  He led two J-E seniors across the line as Kyle Bard was 14^th (20.05) and Andy Degray was 15^th (20.12).                                                                                                                                                   Despite the loss to Skaneateles, J-E put five runners ahead of Hannibal’s first enroute to a 15 – 48 blowout.  Hannibal’s varsity squad only beat J-E’s JV squad by the score of 22 – 37.  “We should feel good about win # 1 said Roman, “we deserve to enjoy one victory, even if it comes against a weaker opponent, it’s not like they weren’t running hard and trying to run us down”.