vs. Somers and Fox Lane 9/22

Jacey Almost Does it Again
Anish Shocks the Team
Newbies Go Sight Seeing

The XC team traveled up 684 on Tuesday to meet new conference foes Somers and Fox Lane. Although neither the girls' nor boys' squad came away with a victory, there were some individual highlights.
Again the story of the meet was Jacey. In only her second cross country race, she went into the last 4oo meters of this grueling 3 miler in first place. Unfortunately, one of the Somers' girls knew her home course well. Knowing exactly how far she was from the finish line she was able to run Jacey down. Jacey fought valiently down the final 100 meters and closed the gap, but she finished two seconds behind the leader. Her second place time was a blazing 22:36. Other fine performances on the girls' side were Sydney's solid 6th place finish of 25:12 and Aiyana's 26:40. Dulce and Kathleen rounded out our top 5 scoring for the girls. Look out Class D these girls are for real.
The break-out performance for the guys was clearly Anish's 21:30. Anish clocked the same time as Joel, although Joel had him by half a step at the finish. Tre followed closely at at 22:00. Allen hyper extended his toe during the race and had to limp to 22:50. Rob Muller closed out the top 5 with a time of 26:33. That's about a four minute gap between the #4 and #5 spot. That has to close up if we want to be competitive.
On the lighter side, Kazia, Sheena and Aliysha liked the course so much that they decided to run a little extra. Luckily, they were not lost for too long before they found their way back on to the course. Brandon almost made his XC debut. He still has no official time though he did complete the tough course. Our freshmen Alexis and James continue to improve as does steady veteran Soe. Special thanks to Zuleima for helping out with the timing.
The next meet for some is the Bowdoin Classic on Saturday, but the whole squad will be back in action against Rye on Tuesday the 29th.

vs.Briarcliff and Pleasantville

Girls win first meet,

Jacey wins it all

With a warm late summer sun shining from above, the Hamilton cross country team started its 2009 campaign. The harriers traveled to Briarcliff H.S. to run against the host team and Pleasantville.

The day started with the Hamilton team getting a walking tour of the challenging course. One look at the ‘mountain’ that is the heart of the Briarcliff course left the Hamilton team gasping. This was clearly going to be one hard afternoon. 2.95 miles later, there was no doubt left, this was one tough course.

The day belonged to the Hamilton Lady Raiders. The team was led by Jacey who won the girls’race. Her gutsy 23:36 performance, followed by efforts from Sydney, Dulce, Aiyana, Kathleen and Kazia combined to defeat Briarcliff earning the Hamilton girls’ XC program its first victory ever.

Though victory eluded the boys’ team today, there were some bright spots. Tre (21:25) and Joel (21:33) in their cross country debuts finished in the top ten. Well sort of… Joel should have finished in the top 10. Unfortunately, he took a right turn when he should have turned left and well you know… Allen picked up the #3 spot with a strong 22:40. Joji and Stephen closed off the Hamilton scoring at 24:01 and 24:03 respectively.

Special mention must be made of Alexis, Aiyana, James and Kazia, all of whom had one tough introduction to cross country. This has to be one of the toughest courses around. Still not one of them quit, and after all that’s what it’s all about.

****next week the squad travels to Somers, site of the October county championship.

2009 Season kickoff

Hamilton Harriers Ready to Toe the Line for a New Season

The Hamilton Cross Country team is back for its second season. This year’s team features a mix of veterans and newcomers eager to hit the trails and take on their competition.

On the boys’ side the team is led by captain Allen Thomas, a returning junior. Allen is looking to focus on the 400 and 800 this year, but first he has a squad to lead through the woods. The team’s top spot is up for grabs with two XC rookies looking to make some noise in our league. Tre Bracey, who is already aiming for a spot on the Section 1 spring pentathlon team, is looking for the XC season to sharpen his 1500m skills. Sophomore Joel Kuruvilia is hoping to build on last year’s successful winter and spring track seasons, and if he lives up to expectations he could be running at the State Meet in Plattsburgh this November. The other top seven spots are still wide open with Stephen Samuel(sr.), Joji Jacob(jr.), Anish Thomas (jr.), Bryant Villa (jr.) and John Varkey (soph.) battling to fill out the varsity roster.

Needless to say, whoever misses the varsity squad will be leading a much more potent JV squad than last year. Returning seniors Soe Latt-Naing and Robert Muller are constantly improving and just waiting for a chance to crack into the top seven. The team is rounded out by Brandon Singh (soph.) and freshmen James Tobias and Alexis Xelo whose fresh faces, effort and enthusiasm represent the future of the team.

On the girls’ side the sky is the limit. Our hopes are to capture a Section I title and punch a ticket for the whole girls’ varsity team to Plattsburgh. Junior Captain Sydney Bridges leads the team. Senior rookie Jacey Peers has Coach Aiello shaking his head wondering where she was last fall. A newcomer to the sport, Jacey’s performances last spring predict that she is sure to excel at the difficult 5k distance. The #3 spot for the moment seems to belong to last year’s most improved award winner, junior Dulce Rosas. The only question is: How good can she get? Kathleen Gonzales (jr.), coming off a disappointing spring season battling illnesses, is hoping to rebound this fall on the trails. The #5 spot is open with a whole group of shorter distance runners bravely venturing into a new sport looking to improve their conditioning for the winter and spring track seasons. Sophomores Aiyana Crew, senior Sheena Varghese, junior Alishya Thomas, sophomores Zuleima Mazo and Kazia Garvey are all in the hunt for spots on the varsity top seven.

Section 1’s leagues have been re-arranged for the 2009 season so the Hamilton Harriers will be running against Valhalla, Blind Brook and Keio Academy in their league meet. Not intimidated at all, the team is looking forward to the new competition. The season kicks off Tuesday, September 15 against Briarcliff H.S. This is the place to come to check on our results.