Jillian King would have preferred to have some company as she crossed the finish line first at last Saturday’s Shaker Invitational.
Instead, there was no one within sight as the Scotia-Glenville sophomore ran the final 100 yards of the 3.04-mile race at Colonie Town Park. King left the field behind midway through the race and pulled away for a 24-second victory over Columbia’s Brina Seguine.
The youngest King sister ran the race alone. Her oldest sister Keelan is in college, and her other sister Caroline a senior at Scotia-Glenville was recovering from an illness.
`I wish my sister (Caroline) had been here with me so I could enjoy this more,` said King. `She’s been really sick lately, so she had to miss this race. But she is getting better.`
King’s lone foe at the Shaker Invitational was the heat and humidity, but she handled that as well as she handled the field. She averaged a time of 6:03.4 per mile to finish with a winning mark of 18:24.39.
`Everyone has to deal with the heat. You can’t do anything about it,` said King.
The rest of the top 10 lagged well behind King’s winning pace. After Seguine crossed the finish line with a time of 18:48.13, the next-fastest runner was Academy of Holy Names junior Claire Hardwick with a time of 19:08.10. Queensbury’s Cara Sprague (fourth, 19:17.20) and Holy Names’ Lauren Recchia (fifth, 19:31.17) rounded out the top five.
Niskayuna placed two in the top 10 with Chelsea Trant finishing sixth with a time of 19:35.44 and Emily McTague taking eighth place in a time of 19:45.49. Colonie’s Kaitlin Mock (seventh, 19:36.99), Queensbury’s Morgan Mueller (ninth, 19:46.45) and Shaker’s Seri Gordon (10th, 19:48.0) also made the top 10.
Holy Names took the girls team title with 61 points. Colonie was second with 82 points, and Queensbury finished third with 84 points. Niskayuna was the top Schenectady County team at the Shaker Invitational with a sixth-place finish.
On the boys’ side, Niskayuna and Scotia-Glenville both had solid performances. Despite not placing anyone in the top 10, Niskayuna finished fifth with 106 points, only 12 points behind fourth-place Guilderland. Scotia-Glenville was sixth with 186 points.
Zak Smetana led Niskayuna with an 11th-place finish in a time of 16:39.53, six seconds out of 10th place. Tim Ryan was 16th in a time of 16:55.99, and Kyle O’Connor finished 23rd with a time of 17:09.36. Anthony Gatta finished 24th in a time of 17:10.79 to pace Scotia-Glenville.
Shenendehowa won the boys team title with 40 points. Queensbury placed second with 56 points, and host team Shaker was third with 59 points.
Baggetta, Curiano lead Schalmont at Fonda
The Schalmont boys and girls cross country teams began their seasons last Saturday at the Fonda Invitational.
Angie Baggetta had the top finish for Schalmont. Baggetta took sixth place in the girls division I race with a time of 21:38.6. Ashley Myers was the next Sabre to cross the finish line, as she finished 28th with a time of 24:13.7.
Matt Curiano led the Schalmont boys team with a ninth place finish in the division I race. Curiano completed the 2.9-mile course in a time of 18:23.8. Mike Notar added a 14th-place performance with a time of 18:52.9.“
