Solvay Harrier

October 5, 2006                                                                                                                                                                      Edition No. 7

The Eagle Harrier

Big Win for Eagles!!

Freshmen Key Victory

“Shoeless” Cody Stanton is Born.

Liverpool, New York – Barely five weeks into their high school careers, two J-E freshman had the varsity cross country races of their lives adding two key places in a 25 – 31 victory over league rival Solvay Wednesday at muddy Longbranch Park.  Freshman Mike “Mad Dog” Marrero and Cody Stanton scored third and sixth respectively on their squads helping the Eagles overcome an inspired Solvay squad on the home course of the Bearcats.  “We needed someone to step up big in this meet” said J-E Coach Roman, “I figured with our depth that it would be a senior, but hey, these freshman are running great”. 

     Junior Jeff Donohue got the Eagles scoring off on the right foot by surging past Marcellus’ fourth runner at the 2 ½ mile mark to take 4^th place overall in the race.  “I heard a voice in my head telling me to go past him as fast as I could” said a pleased Donohue, “and when I did, he didn’t respond”.  “I’m real pleased that I figured this racing strategy out”.  Marcellus, the 12^th ranked N.Y. State Class B squad was led by a trio of outstanding runners who placed in the top 3 places of the race.  Chris Stogsdill, the 2^nd ranked Section III runner in Class B and Mike Esposito, the 6^th ranked Section III runner tied for first (17.56), with teammate Sean Reagan (ranked 9^th) was a few strides behind in third (18.00).  Donohue’s victim was the 19^th ranked Class B runner Jacob Bolewski who finished ten seconds behind Donohue, despite leading Donohue for the entire race.  “Bolewski’s speed rating was ahead of mine” added Donohue, but those numbers were from my B’ville race, and I stunk that day”.  Bolewski had a speed rating of 146 and Donohue was at 142.

     Next in for J-E was Donato Direnzo who finished seventh in a time of 19.06.  “I had hoped to go 1 – 2 against Solvay” said Coach Roman, but Solvay’s senior harrier, Steve Brinkak wasn’t about to oblige”.  Brindak took sixth, a mere 6 seconds ahead of Donato (19.00).  It appeared once again, that Direnzo had hit a wall during the race looking very fatigued and dismayed about his race.  “I tried” is all Direnzo could offer about his inability to beat Brindak. 

     Freshman Mike Marrero was next for J-E taking the hugely important eighth place in the race in 19 minutes and 19 seconds, a solid margin ahead of three Solvay runners.  “Let’s put it this way, if these three Solvay runners step up and beat our little freshman phenom, we tie with Solvay 28 to 28.”  “This wasn’t the case today as Mike decided to race as I’ve known he was capable of”.

     After Solvay placed three runners across the line in a row, taking the 9^th through 11^th places, J-E’s Kyle Merrill and Jake Griffin sealed the J-E win by taking 12^th and 14^th respectively.  “I was sweating bullets big time” said J-E’s Roman, “I won’t lie, I had to figure the score out at the finish line to determine that we had won the meet – it was that close”.  Merrill was only fourteen seconds behind Solvay’s second runner, but the J-E senior couldn’t close the gap.  “I was screaming at Kyle to go, to make a surge and take these three, but he just didn’t have that oomph to close the gap” said Roman.  Solvay’s Waldron, Ruszniak, and Burt ran 19.34, 19.35, and 19.36 respectively.  Merrill finished at 19.48 and Griffin finished at 20.00.

     Freshman “Shoeless” Cody Stanton stepped up to help the Eagles win by finishing one place behind Griffin (15^th place) in 20.02.  Stanton figured into the scoring by “displacing” Solvay’s number five man and adding a point to their score.  If Stanton is defeated by their 16^th placed runner (Hnako ran 20.11), Solvay closes the gap to 25 – 30.  “This was a big point and would have been the tie breaker if the score was tied at 28 as it might have been because in cross country, the tie breaker is whichever team’s sixth runner finishes first”.  Stanton lost his shoe in the very beginning of the race and ran practically the whole race in one shoe.  “Jeremy Cornue ran up to me with Cody’s racing flat (another name for a shoe.) and we tried to get Cody to put it on but he declined” said Roman.  “Cody is really a pretty tough kid and he’s running unbelievably”.

     Senior Kyle Bard was J-E’s 7^th man finishing in 17^th place in a time of 20.17.  Despite not scoring for the Eagles, Bard’s finish was his highest of his J-E career in dual meet scoring.

     Senior Andy Degray was declared the Junior Varsity winner.  Junior Varsity is determined by whichever team’s 8^th man finishes first, and Andy was first among Marcellus and Solvay’s eighth men.  Degray was 20^th overall in 21.20.  George Brauchle was next for J-E in 21^st (21.26) and was pleased and disappointed in his race.  “I led Andy the whole race” said Brauchle, and he only passed me when he sprinted down the closing stretch of the race”.  “I have to practice my sprinting” added Brauchle.  

     Kyle Becker was 29^th (22.50), followed by Matt Sullivan (30^th/22.55), Dylan Kirk (31^st/23.19), and Brendan Hogan (33^rd/26.35).

     “This was a great win for us” said Roman, “this isn’t 1998 or 2004, it’s 2006, and we’ve got to enjoy what the kids do this year”.  J-E improved its record to 2 wins against 4 losses with its defeat of Solvay and it’s loss to Marcellus (20 – 35). 

     The Eagles race in the Tully Invitational on Saturday.