Cross country teams weather the storm at NFL meet

Caitlyn Driscoll was GI’s first runner to the line, in seventh place at the NFL meet. (photo by Larry Austin)

by Eric Keppeler Grand Island Dispatch, November 3, 2006 Conditions were hardly conducive to running, but the Grand Island boys and girls cross country teams both posted strong showings anyway Saturday at the Niagara Frontier League Championship at Reservoir State Park. The boys race took place in a chilly drizzle, and the Vikings wound up with a second-place finish. The weather took a turn for the worst for the girls race that followed, degenerating into windy and painful hail. It was tough on everyone, but the Grand Island girls finished in third place. The boys entered the race at 6-2, and on Saturday they were beaten only by the Lockport Lions, whom the Vikings had defeated earlier in the week. So Grand Island was credited with a 7-1 record at the NFL meet, giving them an aggregate and final record of 13-3, which tied them with Lockport for second place behind Kenmore East. “I’m pretty pleased,” said Grand Island coach Don Sauer. “You hate to get beat by a team you beat just a few days earlier. You’ve got to have all five guys do the job. And Lockport came on really strong.”

Sophomore Evan Tsembelis was the top Grand Island finisher, in fifth place overall (18:32.1), followed by teammates Tim Fargino in seventh (18:52.6), Chris Carter in 14th , Brett Fiedler in 17th and Ryan Hagen in 22nd. Jordan Gibson was 42nd in 21:27.8.

Grand Island actually tied Kenmore East at the league meet, but the higher finish was awarded to the team with the better sixth man – Grand Island’s Joe Mash in 24th (20:13.8), in this case.

The girls race played out much the same way the regular season did. In both cases, Grand Island went 6-2 and wound up third behind Lockport and Lew-Port at 12-4 overall.

Junior Caitlyn Driscoll was Grand Island’s top finisher, in 7th place (23:07), followed by Emily Kahn in 14th (24:11), Bridget George in 16th (24:27), Amber Spiesz in 21st (25:40), Emily Thompson in 38th (26:05), Traci Aladeen in 39th (26:07) and Karen Bellanca in 42nd (26:14).

“I didn’t realize that Lew-Port had improved so much. They really surprised me,” Sauer said. “So I guess we finished where we were supposed to be. No one posted really good times because the conditions were so bad.”

Everyone now moves on to Saturday’s Section VI Championship, which was originally to be held at Elma Meadows, but since that facility was damaged during the recent storm, the site has been shifted to Long Point State Park in Bemus Point on Lake Chautauqua.

The top five individuals in each class advance to the New York State Championship on Nov. 11 at Warwick Valley High School. The winning team in each class also moves on to states.

Sauer knows that he probably doesn’t have the depth necessary for either of his teams to advance, but he has high hopes for a few individuals.

“I think Tim and Evan have an excellent shot at moving on to states,” Sauer said. “Caitlyn Driscoll would be the best shot to move on for the girls. She’s close now – I think she can do it.”

In the junior varsity race, the GI girls won the meet with Lianna Connors running her best race of the year, according to Sauer, to finish seventh, followed by Caroline Boron (eighth), Brooke DeMarco (11th), Jamie Sobieski (12th), Brittney Ciari (14th) and Jessica Yarnes (16th). For the boys JV, Christian Gibson was 21st.