Saturday, October 27, 2018

Red Raiders love Croton Pt. Park

Another fun day in the park

By Myles Stryder

Due to an incoming storm the Westchester County Championship meet got moved up to a Friday afternoon. Though this meant the freshmen races and one JV race had to be dropped, it also meant we finally had a chance to run in some perfect weather conditions. The team seized the opportunity to put up some of its best times of the season.

After bouncing around for the last several years, it looks like Croton Point Park will be the permanent home of Counties. It certainly is a good choice. A relatively fast course with one big hill, good sight lines for spectators and the scenic beauty of the Hudson River all combines for a fine location. We were the first ones to arrive today. Having the park all to ourselves we got to have a nice relaxed warm up and we also got to feel the anticipation of the start of the meet grow as each bus rolled up and teams jumped out.

The first race today was the boys JV race. For some, this would be the last race of the season, as only
Our JV
the top 10 can move on to next week’s sectional meet. The boys headed to the line under cloudy skies and very cool temperatures. Not so great for standing around, but perfect for fast running. For freshmen Aaron and Jair Villa it was a graduation of sorts, and the PRs the two ran showed that they are going to be big contributors to the 2019 team. In fact Aarons’ time of 24:11 is fast enough to make him top 7 heading into next week. Jair was followed to the line by Joseph. Muhammad Hirji and Jonathon Thomas also finished out their seasons on high notes running their fastest times as well.

The clouds lightened up and so did the sky as the sun sank down to the west across the river. The starting line lit up with the colors of the uniforms glowing in the warm light as Jackie and Alyssa approached the line for their race. Today they had to run varsity and though they might not be ready to run at the front of the pack yet, they both PRd. Both ladies have grown tremendously this season with Alyssa taking almost 9 minutes off her time from Sunken Meadows.

The anticipation was peaking as the ladies were finishing and the boys varsity teams were approaching the line. The sun was lower now and the air was getting colder. The teams were striding, chanting and psyching themselves up for a championship race. This was cross country at its best. With a shot from the pistol, they were off. A stampede of runners thundered across the grass heading for the hills. Our boys were on today. Dennis stepped up and had his best race ever. Running 19:10 he puts himself at #5 on our all time list. Jason Atkins finally had his best race of the season. Captain Chris was right with
Tyler and Savallya high above the Hudson
him in the final stretch pushing the sophomore to a 19:43. Edwin followed Chris with a PR 20:15, leaving us all to wonder what might have been if he had not turned that ankle at the Gressler Meet. Brennan was #5 finishing four seconds behind Edwin with another PR. Tyler and Savallya also ran personal bests as they rounded out the squad for Hamilton.

It was a tired, but happy team the climbed on the bus as the sun set over the Hudson. One more week of work before our return to Bowdoin and a date with Haldane.

Coaches and Official's Meet

Boys run two top 10 Hamilton times at Bowdoin
by Myles Stryder

our top 3
After the cancellation of the Bobcat Run the team was itching to race. It had been almost a week and half since the League Meet. We had had some good practices and everybody was ready to go.  The morning dawned cold and gray as the team headed up 684 to Wappingers Falls. The Bowdoin Park course, site of the Section 1 championship meet in two weeks, is one of the toughest courses in Section 1. The first half is basically uphill and the second half runs down the same hill. Most of the team has run there before, so they knew what to expect. Luckily the sun began to poke through before the meet began and before long the sun was out making for a fine autumn day of running.



In the Girls’ race we only had one entrant, Alyssa. It was her first time on the course and she
Alyssa down the back side
ran it very well. She cruised the first half of the course, pacing herself up the hill. She bombed down the backside and was running great until she got attacked by a side stitch. It slowed her a bit in the last half mile, but she still finished up only a minute off her time from two weeks ago on a much easier Brewster course.

In the boys’ JV race it was Savallya and Joseph to the line for Hamilton. Savallya ran his best time ever at Bowdoin with a  25:37. He has been improving all season and he looked strong the whole race. Joseph’s ankle, which has been giving him trouble most of the season, flared up again on the steep downhill sections slowing down his time a bit.

Aaron was our only frosh today. And as such he was lucky enough to run the 9th grade course which doesn’t go up the hill. The kid ran strong finishing at 13:45.

The main event for us was the Boys Varsity race and for the first time since the Gressler Meet we had Edwin back in the line up. The race started quickly and our boys were in it from the start. Captain Chris led the way today. He came down the hill strong, but then forgot how long the flat section is at the end. Despite that, he finished with Hamilton’s 6th fastest time
Chris on his way to a top 10 Hamilton run
ever at Bowdoin, a fine performance of 20:33. Dennis was battling an upset stomach, but still ran a respectable 21:08, 9th fastest Hamilton time at Bowdoin. Jason’s plan for the day was to cruise the first half and blow down the backside of the hill. He came down the hill strong, but he also was slowed by a bad stomach. Edwin was fourth today. His plan was to run smooth and see how his ankle felt. Despite coming downhill gently he also ran a respectable 23:18. Brennan finished up the scoring for our squad. Suffering from a head cold he still ran a 23:29.

Bowdoin is a tough course, but it was good for the squad to get a chance to test themselves against it before the state meet qualifier in two weeks. The test then will be to see if they can run faster than they did today. Stay tuned, but first we head back to Croton Point for the County Championship meet next Saturday.