Three Saratoga County cross country teams are heading to Saturday’s state meet in Warwick with hopes of winning titles.
The Saratoga and Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake girls teams swept the class AA and class A championships, and the Shenendehowa boys team cruised to the class AA crown at last Friday’s Section II meet at Saratoga Spa State Park.
Saratoga’s Hannah Davidson and Shen’s Steve Murdockk added individual titles. Davidson claimed the girls class AA title with a time of 17:04.3, while Murdock won the boys championship with a time of 14:36.5 less than one second off the course record.
I’m a little disappointed because I’m a senior, and it was my last shot,` said Murdock. `But I did my best.`
`He wanted to run faster than he did (at the Suburban Council meet), and he knew what the course record was,` said Shen boys coach Matt Jones.
Guilderland’s Brian Rhodes-Devey was supposed to give Murdock a battle to the finish line, but Murdock pulled away to beat Rhodes-Devey by 10 seconds.
`I didn’t really have a strategy on how to beat him. I wanted to run an even race,` said Murdock.
Davidson left all of her challengers behind her in the girls class AA race. The Saratoga junior finished nearly 45 seconds ahead of her nearest competitor, Shen freshman Cara Janeczko.
`I was thinking about going out slower today, but when coach (Art) Kranick was shouting my times to me on the course, I was still fast,` said Davidson.
Shen and Saratoga dominated the other teams in the class AA field. Shen placed five runners in the top 10 and seven runners in the top 20 to win the boys title with 24 points, while Saratoga claimed the girls title with 42 points ` 28 points ahead of the second-place Shen girls.
`As much as Steve is our leader out there, we focus more on team than individuals,` said Jones. `We had a lot of kids not only get their personal records, but also our fifth, sixth and seventh guys all ran well.`
Adam Quinn and Zack Predmore contributed top-five finishes for Shen. Quinn was third in a time of 15:19.0, while Predmore was on Quinn’s heels in fourth place with a time of 15:19.3.
Zac Suriano (sixth, 15:27.2) and Mike Danaher (10th, 15:45.9) also placed in the top 10 for the Plainsmen, the top-ranked class AA team in the state.
Cassie Goutos and Alysha McElroy joined Davidson in the top 10 for Saratoga in the girls race. Goutos placed third with a time of 17:54.6, and McElroy was eighth in a time of 18:31.1.
Brianne Bellon (13th, 18:41.3) and Liz Ochse (17th, 18:46.6) rounded out the Blue Streaks’ top five.
BH-BL proved its No. 1 ranking among class A girls teams was no fluke, as it took the Sectional title with 45 points, 14 points ahead of runner-up Queensbury.
It was a measure of revenge for the Lady Spartans, who lost to Academy of Holy Names by four points at last year’s Sectionals.
`We worked 365 days to close those four points. We weren’t going to lose by four points again,` said BH-BL coach Shawn Zepf.
Sophomores Meaghan Gre-gory and Sam Roecker led the Lady Spartans. Gregory placed third with a time of 17:43.7, while Roecker finished fourth with a time of 17:46.6. Rachel Cyrus (11th, 18:47.5), Molly Pezzulo (13th, 19:12.3) and Martha Brown (14th, 19:12.9) rounded out BH-BL’s top five.
`It’s been the same thing all year. It doesn’t matter what the week is ` somebody steps up,` said Zepf. `Today, it was Rachel Cyrus who stepped up.`
The BH-BL boys team nearly made the state meet, but Queens-bury fended off the Spartans to take the class A title with 29 points. BH-BL settled for second place with 43 points.
Twelve of the first 15 runners in the boys class A race either wore Queensbury or BH-BL uniforms. Queensbury had three of the top four runners, led by Matt Flint’s first-place time of 15:23.4 ` six-tenths of a second ahead of BH-BL’s Ryan Pezzulo. Drew Houghtalen and Otis Urbiaco broke up Queensbury’s pack by placing fifth and seventh, respectively. But Queensbury’s next four runners finished in a row between 10th and 13th place to seal the victory.
`We ran well,` said BH-BL coach Chip Button. `They must have just run tremendous times.`
`We had probably the best race we’ve run this season in terms of average time, and they still beat us,` added Pezzulo.
Pezzulo, Houghtalen and Urbiaco all earned individual berths to Saturday’s state meet, along with Janeczko and Saratoga’s Chris Allen and Demetri Goutos.“