OHSL Harrier

The Eagle Harrier

 Slip and Slide at OHSL

All Conference for Donohue!!

Wind, Rain and Muddy Conditions Plague Tully Course

Tully, New York – Who says cross country runners aren’t tough?  Now if you’re asking one to walk down a dark and secluded ally to rumble with the Crips or the Bloods, forget about it.  If you are asking a proven harrier to strip down into their skivvies and then run through mud and puddles, in a driving rain, with wind chills in the 30’s, you now know what the conditions were like at Saturday’s OHSL Championships at Tully H.S. and how tough J-E cross country runners are.  “I would share a fox hole with any of them” said J-E Coach Roman, “they are a tough bunch”. “No offense to any of our fellow sports and extra-curricular teams at J-E” continued Coach Roman, but when the really bad weather hits, most teams take the day off or retreat to the cozy confines of the gymnasium”, but not us, my boys love it when it’s really really nasty out”.

     And really really nasty were the racing conditions in which the Eagles had to deal.  The OHSL Meet was won by a Fayetteville-Manlius team that only slightly dominated the field, unlike their 2005 squad that took the top five positions in the race, winning the meet with a low score of 47 points, 54 points ahead of Liverpool and 55 points ahead of the host school, Tully.  J-E finished 24^th out of a competing 42 schools with a score of 636 points.  J-E was 6^th in class C, but the OHSL Meet is not divided by class, as all six divisions of the OHSL run in the same race.  The Liberty Division in which J-E competes was the third fastest on the day.

     Jeff Donohue, gearing up for sectionals, had another outstanding meet as he was the lone Eagle to break the top 100 of the field.  “Jeff has been improving in every meet this season” and Saturday, he looked strong”.  Donohue finished 55^th out of 278 runners who took on Tully’s slimy race course.  Donohue also was the lone Eagle to make the All Conference Second Team and was the 12^th fastest racer from the Liberty Division.  “I was disappointed and satisfied at the same time” said Donohue, “I am happy that I made second-team, but Skaneateles’ Sam Smolenski was only four seconds ahead of me, and he made the first team, so I am a bit disappointed”.

     The next three runners for J-E finished in a cluster, all finishing within 11 seconds of each other.  Donato Direnzo made a solid return after a sub-par race at Weedsport to once again place as J-E’s second man.  Direnzo was 125^th in 19.19, followed by Mike “Mad Dog” Marrero in 132^nd place (19.22) and Kyle Merrill in 145^th place (19.30).  Marrero was the 12^th fastest freshman on the day.   Shelby Brayton, despite a near fall during the race was J-E’s 5^th man in 179^th place (20.02).  Kyle Bard was 203^rd in 20.35, and Jake Griffin was 212^th (20.49).  Bard had just taken his ACT Exam at Tully H.S. earlier that morning.

     The JV Squad fared a bit better than the varsity by finishing in 17^th place.  Cody Stanton led the squad with his 62^nd placed finish (20.26).  Stanton was dismayed by his time and was heard whining that his time was 30 seconds slower than he ran at the Tully Invite 4 weeks earlier.  Welcome to the world of mud and late October weather Cody!  Andy Degray ran a solid 2^nd man, holding off sophomore Kyle Becker who was J-E’s third man for the second-straight meet.  Degray ram 20.57 (87^th) and Becker ran 21.36, a mere five seconds ahead of George Brauchle (120^th).  “There was some good, old-fashioned verbal sparring going on between Becker and Brauchle about which J-E runner was going to beat the other” said Coach Roman,   “And to Kyle’s credit, he came up big once again”.   Dylan Kirk was J-E’s fifth man for the second straight race (169^th/23.11).  Matt Sullivan and Brendan Hogan competed well in the race with 253 runners with Sullivan finishing in 175^th (23.26) and Brendan finishing 182^nd (23.51).

     The Sectionals are to be run on Friday, November 3^rd, rather than Saturday as has been done in the past.