US#1 Team Sweeps Top Five Spots at New York Regional

By Doug Binder, DyeStat Editor

Two years later, Kinetic has still got it. 

The girls cross country team known as Kinetic (Saratoga Springs NY) remains largely intact since its 2019 Nike Cross Nationals victory and that group scored a record-low 15 points at the NXR New York meet on Saturday at Bowdoin Park in Wappingers Falls, N.Y.

Kinetic's results Saturday were a bit better than 2019, when the team finished second by two points to Manlius XC. All five scorers ran 18:40 or better. In 2019, the five scorers ran between 18:28 and 19:26 on the challenging 5,000-meter layout. 

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Emily Bush, an eighth-grader in 2019 and the team's fifth scorer at the regional (25th place), was the winner this time. 

Bush clocked 18:09.3 and won by 23 seconds. Her teammates followed her in: Alycia Hart (18:32.4), Ella Kurto (18:33.2), Sheridan Wheeler (18:35.8) and Mackenzie Hart (18:40.0) were all 13 seconds ahead of the first non-Kinetic runner.

Freshman Lillie Bogdan (unattached/Frontier Central NY), who finished 13th at the New York Class A final (and behind Kinetic's five scorers) was sixth in 18:53.0. 

Anya Belisle, Kinetic's sixth runner, was seventh overall in 18:58.1.  

Deluge XC (Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake), the New York Class B champions, claimed the boys regional title with 35 points to beat a short-handed Corning XC (47). 

Matthew Rounds won the race and teammate Peter Fulgieri was fourth overall to give Deluge XC a leg up in the team race. Rounds finished in 16:24.4 and won a tight race with Ike Blough of Mount XC Club (16:25.4).

Collin Brown (unattached/McQuaid Jesuit) was third in 16:29.6.

Halfmoon Harriers (Shenendehowa) finished third with 84 points and was led by Nathan Brimhall's eight-place overall finish.