West Downington, F-M reign at Manhattan

By Doug Binder, DyeStat Editor

Massive meets on both coasts dominated the attention this weekend in high school cross country.

The Manhattan Invitational functions as a watershed for a swath of the Eastern seaboard nearly the same was Penn Relays does in the spring. We've got race videos and John Nepolitan's photos from the action at Van Cortlandt Park.

The Eastern States races are where the most newsworthy action takes place. And on the girls side, there was a new course record for Jessica Lawson of Corning (13:53.7), who seems to be locked in a battle with Elmira’s Abbey Wheeler for state supremacy this fall.

And Fayetteville-Manlius’ girls were once again exceptional, showing that they will not give up their NXN crown without a fight. As they have done many times before, F-M arrived at Manhattan ready to perform well and build confidence with a successful result. Transfer Kaitlyn Neal was second overall in the race with 14:04.6 for second, one spot ahead of Haddonfield NJ’s Briana Gess.

F-M scored 50 points and averaged 14:36.9. That’s the same realm as the historic 2009 team that went on to NXN where the top five were spread apart by 16.4 seconds. Needless to say, that was an F-M win.

Asked on the awards dais by Manhattan race announcer Dennis Kornfield if the wins were becoming old hat, Aris said: “The pursuit of excellence never gets old.”

It was also a strong performance by Northeast #1 Pennsbury, which was second with 125 points, and unranked North Rockland, which was third with 147.

Moving on to the boys, there was yet another strong validation for Noah Affolder, a junior from Carthage NY who has become the dominant runner in the state over the past month. He didn’t run at Edward Cheserek or Alec Ostberg levels (sub-12 is for the rare outlier), but he got the job done in 12:14.3 and was seven seconds clear of Needham Broughton NC’s Jeremy Brown at the finish line.

Downington West PA won the boys team title with 177 points and beat US#1 CBA, NJ which was third (205) behind Needham Broughton NC (192).

Downington West came into meet ranked third in the Northeast, behind CBA and Lowell of Massachusetts. Needham Broughton NC is No. 2 in the Southeast. Liverpool and Fayetteville-Manlius were fourth and fifth, respectively (both are ranked in the top five in New York). Sixth place Mount Tabor of North Carolina is not ranked in Southeast but showed up big.

The first-place Whippets were led by brothers Josh and Jaxon Hoey, who placed eighth and ninth overall. It was the school’s first Eastern States victory.

“We’re extremely excited,” head coach Scott Burns said. “With 177 points, you’re not sure where that’s going to place us. But we opened the results up together as a team and had a moment of celebration.”

Out on the West coast, at Woodwark Park for the Clovis Invitational, there was a whole of lot of Great Oak. The dominant team in California won Division I titles in varsity boys and girls, JV boys and girls, and freshman boys and girls competitions. 

The US#1 girls put its top seven across in the first 21 finishers and scored a scant 34 points. Senior Destiny Collins won the Division 1 race for the second year in a row, and ran a somewhat conservative 17:36.7. The expected showdown with Fiona O’Keeffe didn’t materialize as the Davis senior said she felt fatigued and sick coming home from a college visit and decided not to race.

Collins, who has traveled for college visits throughout September, ran well enough to win. Last year, however, she ran about 40 seconds faster.

Great Oak also won the Division I boys title with 81 points with one of its main cogs, Isaac Cortes, not in the lineup. California #2 Dana Hills was second with 117 points, California #5 Jesuit was third with 135 points and California #3 Martin Luther King was fourth with 232.

Up front, Phillip Rocha of Arcadia ran with confidence and ran 14:58 for a three-second win over Madera South’s frontman Eduardo Herrera. (For perspective, Foot Locker third place finisher Elijah Armstrong ran 15:01 to win Clovis last year). Great Oak duo Spencer Dodds and Cole Spencer were third and fifth, respectively. Check out the 1,100-plus photos taken by Chuck Utash. And also check out all of Erik Boal's video interviews. Plus, here's the TFX Results

Elsewhere, in Utah, the regional round of meets came. In Region 5, there was a really good race between Ogden’s Alek Parsons and Salt Lake City East’s Garek Bielaczyc, who had seemed unstoppable all season. Parsons turned the tables on him and won by a second, 14:43 to 14:44. … In the Region 2 meet, the Davis boys went 2-7 in a dominating performance and Courtney Wayment broke the course record in Layton with 16:58 for three miles. … In Region 4, Casey Clinger of American Fork ran 14:47.5 for a convincing win individually, but the Cavemen suffered a rare loss to Lone Peak, 77 to 81. Lone Peak placed five runners between AF’s third and fourth. McKay Johns, out all season so far for American Fork, could possibly return for the state meet on Oct. 23 but is more certain to be on the starting line for NXN Southwest.

In Oregon, the Sandelie West Course stole some of the thunder from the George Fox XC Classic. Grant star Ella Donaghu went head to head with Sunset freshman Ember Stratton in a preview of the Class 6A meet, and won by 18 seconds, 16:59.6 to 17:18.6. Sunset, however, ran to a very impressive team win with 34 points. Lincoln won the boys team title. … At Willamette Mission Park near Salem the next day, Jackson Mestler of Sheldon and Olivia Brooks of Summit were the individual winners.

In Washington, the big meets were at Richland and in Lakewood for the Hole In The Wall Invitational. Justin Janke ran 15:06 in Richland but his North Central boys lost a close team battle with Eisenhower. In Lakewood, Nathan Beamer edged out Tibebu Proctor for the boys win. Erin Mullins from Cascade was the fastest girl. Central Catholic OR boys and Mt. Si WA girls were the team winners.

It was sectional week in Indiana, where Carmel’s Ben Veatch ran 14:53 for a course record in Noblesville. For a more thorough rundown of the action in Indiana, here is Parker West’s report.

In Illinois, Mike Newman breaks down all of the weekend action.

In Florida, unattached runner Brandon Marquez lit up Disney World with a 15:15 run for 5K. Here is the coverage from DyeStatFL.

In Virginia, at the Glory Days Grill Invitational, Weini Kelati of Heritage ran 17:11 for the second time this season on a 5K course and beat Lake Braddock’s Kate Murphy by 30 seconds.

In North Carolina at the NC Runners Elite Invitational, Nevada Mareno of Leesville Road put together a very strong race to win in 17:40 and beat Green Hope’s Elly Henes, the runner-up, by 50 seconds.

In Michigan, at the Portage Invitational, Rachel Bonner of Port Huron ran 17:15.9 for a big win. And the Northville girls had a strong showing with 78 points. On the boys side, Isaac Harding of Rockford led his team to victory with an individual win in 15:01.