Jillian King proved she is the best class A runner in Section II.
Caroline King proved she is regaining her strength after a season filled with illness, including a bout of mononucleosis.
The Scotia-Glenville sisters took the top two places at last Friday’s Section II Cross Country Championships at Saratoga Spa State Park. Jillian won the individual title with a time of 17:15, while Caroline the defending Sectional champ placed second with a time of 17:39.4.
For Jillian, the title was secondary to her sister’s health.
`I’m hoping my sister is OK. That’s all I’m worried about,` said Jillian.
Caroline was satisfied with cutting the gap between her and Jillian by 15 seconds over their last race ` the Foothills Council Championships 10 days earlier.
`I’m happy because when the doctor told me I had mono (last month), I didn’t know if I’d even run Sectionals,` said Caroline.
Both Kings were in the lead pack midway through the race when Jillian made her move.
`I kind of went out with a group and wanted to see how I felt, and if I felt strong enough, I’d start pulling away,` said Jillian. `I just started pulling away, and I told myself to create a bigger gap, so I did.`
Caroline did her best to keep up with Jillian, but like the rest of the lead pack, she found herself watching her younger sister pull further ahead. Still, she was proud of Jillian, who missed Sectionals last year because she transferred from Academy of the Holy Names back to Scotia-Glenville in the middle of the season.
`She didn’t really get a chance to run last year, so the fact that she’s been racing every week now has really helped her,` said Caroline.
The King sisters are two of several Schenectady County runners heading to Saturday’s state meet in Warwick. Niskayuna’s Emily McTague, Schalmont’s Matt Curiano, Mohonasen’s Patrick Murray, Scotia-Glenville’s Ryan Madigan and Schenectady Christian’s Mike Klein also earned berths after placing in the top 10 of their respective races.
McTague followed in her older sister Caitlin’s footsteps by qualifying for states with a sixth-place time of 18:09.2 in the girls class AA race.
`I really wanted to get out fast because it was really packed at the beginning,` said McTague.
It was another step in a burgeoning cross country career for McTague, who hadn’t had many top-10 invitational finishes until this season. The junior credited her success to some off-season training with Caitlin, who went to several state meets.
`I trained with her over the summer a bit, which was fun,` said McTague. `She’s given me a lot of good pointers on running.`
On the boys’ side, Klein pulled away from the pack to win the class D title with a time of 16:47.5, while Curiano recovered from a ninth-place finish at the Colonial Council Championships to finish second in the class B race with a time of 16:55.7.
`I was very lucky (to place second),` said Curiano. `It was a great race, and on another day, it could’ve been anyone else.`
After the race, Curiano sported a sash of caution tape, which he said was from the Colonial Council race at the same Saratoga Spa State Park course.
`The caution tape was broken in this one section, which is where I went off course,` said Curiano. `I just ran through it and then realized I went the wrong way.`
Madigan and Murray had to cut through a sea of Queensbury and Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake runners to finish in the top 10. Madigan (sixth place, 16:03.5) was the first non-Queensbury/Burnt Hills runner to cross the finish line. Murray (eighth, 16:04.5) was the second one to break up the pack.
All seven individual qualifiers will go to Warwick for Saturday’s state meet.
In the team competition, the Niskayuna and Scotia-Glenville boys teams each earned third-place plaques.
Niskayuna finished with 82 points in the class AA race, but missed second place Guilderland by eight points. However, the Silver Warriors put themselves in position to earn an at-large berth for the Federation meet by finishing fourth in the merged standings with 132 points ` two points ahead of Guilderland.
Scotia-Glenville claimed third place in class A with 92 points, with Queensbury beating Burnt Hills 29-43 for the Section II title. Mohonasen was sixth with 198 points.
Schenectady Christian and Schalmont also had strong team performances on the boys’ side. Schenectady Christian placed fourth in class D with 68 points, while Schalmont finished sixth in class B with 166 points.
Scotia-Glenville had the top team performance in the girls’ division. The Tartans placed fourth behind the powerful trio of Burnt Hills, Queensbury and Holy Names with 105 points. Burnt Hills won the title with 45 points, followed by Queensbury with 59 points and defending state champion Holy Names with 70 points. Mohonasen was 10th with 249 points.
Schalmont placed sixth in the class B girls team standings with 133 points, while Niskayuna was seventh in the class AA race with 163 points.“