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NXN 2014 Meet Story - DyeStat

Published by
DyeStat.com   Dec 7th 2014, 12:36am
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F-M breaks in new course with historic sweep

 

By Doug Binder, DyeStat Editor


Fayetteville-Manlius took its mastery of the Nike Cross Nationals to a new level on Saturday.


Despite moving away from the venue where coach Bill Aris and F-M's girls won seven times in 10 years, the school christened Glendoveer Golf Course with a sweep of the boys and girls national team championships.


Aris has now won a total of nine championships out of a possible 22 since Nike began the team championship event in 2004.


It's an astonishing rate of success and yet the mantra on the starting line is almost always the same: "Get out hard, stay on your feet, run like hell," Aris said.


If he wasn't there already, Saturday's performance elevates Aris to something akin to the John Wooden of high school cross country. Part philosopher, part master motivator, guru of the Stotan Way, Aris hit all the right notes with his teams this weekend in Portland.


"We must be doing something right," senior Kyle Barber said.


A year ago, the Manlius girls came up 12 points short of an eighth consecutive championship as Wayzata MN took the victory.


Saturday, it was the boys sweating out the final tally and announcement as they stood next to the Wayzata boys on the awards ceremony stage.


"We were pretty nervous," Adam Hunt said. "It could have been anyone's game at that point. It just seemed like an eternity waiting for the scores."


It turned out to not be razor close after all. Manlius scored 111 points to Wayzata's 159 -- an average of three seconds per scorer better. North Spokane WA was third and Liverpool NY, a conference rival of F-M, was fourth. Liverpool didn't even qualify for the New York Class A Championships because F-M was in the way -- and still finished No. 4 in the country.


Usual No. 1 Bryce Millar went out with the leaders and faltered a bit late, but he held it together to finish in 14th place in 16:00. Peter Ryan led the team with an eight place in the team scoring and 15:40. Manlius went 8-14-15-19-55.


Wayzata was strong up front and had two in before Manlius' first. Connor Olson led a group that went 6-7-17-62-67.


Aris preaches selflessness and recognizing every action as energy for the good of the team -- not unlike Wooden, the legendary UCLA basketball coach.


The individuals on the girls team fed off one another throughout the 5,000-meter race on the soggy, rolling lane around the golf course. After a long string of individual qualifiers -- led by overall winner Allie Ostrander of Alaska -- the top four Manlius girls came into together (11-12-13-14 in the team scoring).


Manlius scored 70 points to beat runner-up Great Oak (Temecula) CA, which scored 149. Always tough Carmel IN was third with 173 and North Naperville IL was fourth with 198.


Aris said last year's rare loss to Wayzata was not the 2014 team's sole source of motivation.


"I tend to put (the loss) in a box and leave it," Aris said. "I will say it strengthened their resolve to right the ship so to speak. It also let some of the steam out of the pressure cooker."


Without the pressure to maintain the streak, this year's F-M girls team went through some highs and lows -- but gathered momentum as they approached December.


"We had a roller coaster season in terms of performances," Aris said. "We had a low at McQuaid, ran much better at Manhattan, going to secitonals was bleh but we won it, states was phenomenal and regionals was an ugly run on an ugly day. We ran great today."


Strength seems to come from the bonds that bind together F-M's teams.


"We stay together (during the race), feel each other's energy and work together," Jenna Farrell said.


Ostrander and Anderson claim individual wins


For the second straight year the individual champions both came out of the Northwest region.


Allie Ostrander, more than two months removed from her state championship in Alaska, won her first major national competition.


"This is a dream come true -- literally -- I had a dream about it last night," she said.


Ostrander woke from her lucid dream in her hotel room and had that moment where she felt elated -- only to discover that she still had to go out and do it for real.


Ostrander was part of a lead pack that included California Div 1 champion Fiona O'Keeffe and a few others. But when O'Keeffe began to drop back in the kilometer, Ostrander's biggest challenge was Texan Paige Hofstad.


Ostrander pressed the pace up the final hills and no one could track her down. She was timed in 17:19 and finished seven seconds ahead of Hofstad, the NXN South champion.


Ostrander referred to a letter that all of the runners received from Nike pro and double Olympic champion Mo Farah.


"Mo Farah wrote us all letters and it said 'When I went into a race I wasn't thinking I can win, I was thinking I want to do well and I can do well,' so that was my mentality," Ostrander said.


Conversely, Anderson said he dreamed that he had lost.


Perhaps spurred on by a fear of failing -- he had sleepless nights prior to his state meet for the same reason -- the easy-going redhead from Spokane just went out and trusted what he could do.


A four-time NXN participant, Anderson used his experience and followed the example set by his former teammate and last year's champion, Kai Wilmot.


"I was focused on my team today, so I could have placed fifth today and got the Number one for my team and felt great," Anderson said. "Through the week it was all about finding balance and I found balance in the race. The balance was here's the red line and I'm not going to pass it til that last bit so it was knowing your body and staying in-tune with yourself."


Anderson gave the course a passing grade, despite some of the areas getting chewed up by the girls race.


"There were some spots where I was thinking 2012 NXN and there were some spots where I was thinking state course (dry) a month ago," Anderson said. "There girls had definitely done a great job of tearing it up for us."


Anderson had studied the course and knew how to measure out how much energy it would take to get over the final segment. North Central's workout intervals, it turns out, are 655 meters long. Anderson figured out the exact spot where 655 meters remained before the finish line, and knew how to cover that final third of a mile.


"Weird number, I know, but I had it mapped out 655 and that was single for us," Anderson said. "And I could picture myself going around Mission Park on a lumpy, bumpy summer day. I could picture how far that was and what it was going to take for me and I was prepared and my coach did a really good job and I appreciate everything he's done for me."

 

Last year, Anderson said Wilmot's victory felt like like his own -- that he couldn't have been happier. 

 

This time, hitting the finish tape first was a feeling all its own and it belonged to him. 

 

"It was overwhelming joy --  I can't put it into words," he said.

 




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