Raiders Run Wild at Bobcat Run 2016

Chris and Omar Break Freshman Record

Lowell and Chris

Team Racks Up 12 PRs

By Myles Stryder

What a day in Armonk! The Hamilton Harriers have been working hard all season and improving steadily, but I don’t think anyone expected to have so many runners take such a big step forward on the same day.

     The day dawned cloudy, but luckily not rainy as the team met for an 8m bus and quick breakfast of bagels and cream cheese. The team scrambled off the bus shortly before 9, set up the tent in the middle of the field and started getting

prepared for a day of races.  Everyone was sensing the excitement in the air. The Bobcat Run has grown into a class cross country event, This year there were about 40 teams competing and the field was packed with multi-colored tents, teams and uniforms.

    First race of the day for Hamilton was the freshmen boys. Chris Yeosock was eager to take another shot at Lowell’s 1.5 mi. Mark of 10:49. All of the freshmen have been working hard the last couple of weeks, to the point of completing their first 5 mile run on the trail this past Thursday.  The race

started out with a couple of circuits around the field and then into the woods. The course proved to be much faster than Woodlands and the improved competition must have had some effect on our runners because they flew today. First out of the woods and down the field to the finish was Chris coming in at a record breaking 10:09. Omar followed with a mad dash at the end, passing seven

runners in the last 100 meters. He crossed the line at 10:44 also besting the old record.  Next in with a PR and 5th fastest time ever for a frosh was Dennis Rambaran at 11:19. Brennan, Savallya and Joe D. all followed with PRs of their own, with each shaving more than a minute off their bests. After today, it looks like Coach Aiello will be running a few of these 9th graders in the 5K next week at the C and O meet at Bowdoin. They need to know the course should any of them be needed at the State Qualifier meet.

    The girls ran JV again today. Today Megan had the better of it, with a 24:09 5K, 7th best ever. Naomi followed with a

Megan on the way to PR

25:03. Jennifer Vargas then turned in a 27:44 for her second PR in a week. Maddy and Lauren followed in helping the girls finish ahead of Valhalla.

     All the boys ran in the varsity race and it was a fast one. Lowell again was our first man across the line matching his season best of 20:10. Captain Ryan followed again with a PR of 21:07. Brandon M. continued in the #3 spot also turning in a PR of 22:50 which puts him into

our all-time top 20. Jeff quietly slipped into the the #4 spot also turning in a PR time of 23:51. Christian and Alfonso followed, helping the team combine to out run Mount Vernon and Children’s Village.

     Coach Aiello had been looking forward to this meet, but never expected to see so many show so much improvement at the same time. The Bobcat has long been one of the favorite meets of every cross country season, and after today’s performance, you can be sure the team will be looking forward to returning next year. Wednesday the team returns to Woodlands for the League Championship, stay tuned.

Meet vs. Woodlands and Croton

Freshmen shine run 3 of 7 top times

   By Myles Stryder

     Sometimes it seems like Woodlands is our home away from home. This Wednesday was our third of five trips to Greenburgh. Today was a small affair. Just a double dual meet with the host team and Croton. Everything about this meet was short and sweet, so this blog post will be too.

   We were rained out of our earlier dual meet with Croton, so this was our first time to see them. They were the only team today that had a full girls’ team, so it was decided to run one combined race. This meant that the freshmen would have their first crack at a 5K since our first meet on the 7th of September.  If there was a story line today it had to be the frosh squad. With the absence of two starting red shirts, this was an opportunity for the young guys to make a statement. With the Bobcat run upcoming Saturday, our top runners were under instruction to just cruise  the by now familiar course. Lowell and Ryan did just that. They were closely followed by Brandon Machado, who has been a shot in the arm for this team. Speedy freshman Chris Y. followed running a sold 23:07 and rookie Alfonso Garcia, a junior transfer followed rounding out the scoring for Hamilton.  Freshman Omar, who has all the potential in the world, was next across the line. Following Omar was young Dennis R., who has been one of the hardest working guys on the team. As the freshman crossed the line, he turned to Coach Aiello and asked “Good enough for a red shirt?”. Now there is a kid with desire. Jonathon, frosh Brennan and Corey were next. Behind them were Joe, Savallya, Christian and Luciano.

   We only had two girls today. Naomi looked good running a 24:21 as did Megan at 25:10. I’m giving times, but I’m not sure what distance we ran today.  The course at Woodlands always seems to change a bit every time we run there. Woodlands Coach Parker put it at 2.8 or 2.9 miles. We’ll put it in our books as 2.8. Next meet for the Hamilton Harriers is everyone’s favorite the Bobcat Run at Byram Hills this Saturday.

*sorry for not having pictures, had to work the finish line

Woodlands Invitational 10/2

Harriers show great improvement

PRs a plenty

 By Myles Stryder

There was no mid-week dual meet on the schedule for the last week of September, so the team took advantage of the extra time to do some good workouts. Monday was a hill/speedwork combo and Wednesday was 1000 m. intervals on the field for the first time this season. It must have been just what the team needed, because our second trip to Woodlands proved to be much speedier than our first.

  About two years ago the decision was made to move the County meet from Croton  Point to Woodlands H.S.. Since than, our Greenburgh neighbors have been busy hosting many meets. This was the second annual Woodlands Invitational and Hamilton’s first appearance. The meet was mid-sized, about twenty teams, and it was quite the interesting mix of schools as our Harriers found themselves running against teams from Bronxville, the South Bronx and even the German International School.

  The day started cloudy and cool with a forecast for showers. Luckily though, the skies stayed overcast the rain never appeared. First race of the day sent our freshman team to the line. It’s been fun this season watching this young bunch of guys starting to develop into a unit. Chris Y. decided to

Chris Y. leading the frosh

take advantage of the opportunity to compete against guys his own age.  He was first across the line for us with a time of 11:51 on the slow 1.5 mi. woodchip covered  course.  Omar followed as our #2 with a 12:16. Dennis and Brennan came in together for our numbers 3 and 4. They were followed by Savallya and Joe who both cut minutes off their times from our previous trip to Woodlands. The boys combined to beat both Ardsley and Westlake. This Frosh squad has got some talent, and there is no reason why another one or maybe even two of them might wind up joining Chris wearing red shirts by the end of the season.

  

frosh with Captain Ryan

 Next to the line were our JV boys Christian Torres decided to join Corey for the run and both of them put up their best times ever. Christian running a 28:49 and Corey finally breaking 30:00. This was a monkey that Hamilton Baseball’s best pitcher wanted off his back, and the whole team was glad to see him finally do it.

  We only had three ladies today, so the decision was made to run them in the JV race. Being in the mix and closer to the front seemed to motivate them. Naomi was sixth overall across the line, snagging a medal in the process. The award was nice, but more  impressive was her PR performance landing her in our top 7 all time.  Megan after a late night dinner, which won’t be described here, also put up a very solid performance of 26:07. Clearly though, one of the highlights of the day was seeing senior Jenn Vargas have her best race since joining Hamilton’s team last season. Jenn ran a determined race and put up a PR of 28:34.

Lady Raiders ready to race

  Our boys’ varsity team was not at full strength. Chris Y. ran Frosh and Stephen S. was out injured. We put 6 guys on the line and they gave it their all. There is something a little different about this team this season. They just have a little more desire. Lowell led the red shirts with a 20:41, a ways from his PR, but not bad for October 1. Ryan looked good coming in just 15 seconds off his best. Rookie Brandon Machado cut minutes off his best crossing the line at 23:47. Rock solid Jeffrey Quispe was next across with a PR as well. Jonathon, with a tremendous finish, catching a Children’s Village runner in the last 100m ran a season’s best as did Luciano. By the way, that last pass helped us edge out Children’s Village in the final standings.

  All in all, it was a very successful day. This a different team from the last couple. You can see it from the way they warm up and the way they do their cool down runs.  Today was the start of October. It could be a very interesting month indeed, stay tuned.

Hamilton Runs the Big Apple

Xavier Invitational

11 runners break in to our top 20

at the overlook with Manhattan behind

by Myles Stryder

   Saturday dawned cloudy and for the first time there was a bit of a chill in the air, but by the time the squad got down to the Bronx the sun had broken through and the stage was set for some fine early autumn cross country running. And what better stage could there be than Van Cortlandt Park. When you talk about XC running in NY State the two courses that stand out are Sunken Meadows and VCP. Unfortunately, the team will not make it out to Long Island this season, so they were more than eager to try their skills against the tough NYC course.

   After doing a little sight seeing, climbing to the overlook that looks out over the park, the team was ready to get down to business. First race of the day at the Xavier Invitational was the freshman 1.5 mile run. This time young Chris stepped down from his varsity spot to run the short race. His time of 11:23 was the fifth fastest time put up by a 9th grader since the return of Hamilton XC. After the race, Chris was a bit disappointed in his performance. He felt he went out too fast and faded at the end. Of course that's all part of learning how to race. After all, it's only his first month as a cross country runner. Chris was followed by Omar, Dennis and Brennan who put up the 12th, 17th, and 18th fastest freshman performances. Savallya and Joseph followed with both of them putting up faster times than earlier in the week at Woodlands.

Chris Y. leading the frosh squad

    In the girls' race today our only entrants were Naomi and Megan. Both of them had fine early season races with Naomi putting up our 8th fastest and Meagan the 10th fastest Hamilton girl times at the 2.5 mile distance. 

 

Ryan finishing hard

The Varsity boys closed the day for us, and they did some pretty good running while they were at it. Lowell ran a speedy 16:48 for our 5th fastest time and Ryan, fighting a nasty head cold, put up a VCP personal best of 17:51 for the lucky 13th fastest Hamilton time in the

Stephen having a good day

Bronx. Steven, Brandon, and Luciano followed with the #17,18, and 19 times. Jonathon was close behind,  and unfortunately Corey and Christian were given some bad directions coming out of the back hills and were DNF. This team is starting to come together nicely. Upcoming is a week with no dual meets. That gives the harriers 5 solid days of practice to get ready for Saturday's Woodlands Invitational. Check back with us soon.

Lowell leading the way for Hamilton

Return of the Red Shirts

Return of the Red Shirts

Hamilton vs. Woodlands, Dobbs, Irvington and Children's Village

by Myles Strider

The return of the red shirts. It's what Coach Aiello had been talking about all last week.  Several seasons ago coach decided to retire our Hamilton red shirts until the moment was right. This team has him feeling that the time is right, and this season Hamilton's top seven guys will run in red. Shirts get collected after every meet and reissued to whomever is top 7 that week. Hamilton red was set to make its debut last week against Croton, but a violent T-storm wound up canceling the meet. 

Turns out that Woodlands would be the site for our return to the old colors. It just might of helped, because the boys had their best performance in the last couple of seasons. Although the race was completely dominated by a very strong Irvington team that took the first 5 spots, Hamilton looked good against Dobbs Ferry; and the boys in red ran right past host Woodlands and a much improved and disciplined Children's Village team.

The boys were led, as usual, by Lowell and Captain Ryan. Our top two looked fast and relaxed as they ran the 3 mile course.  In the number three spot was freshman Chris Yeosock.  Chris jumped from the five spot last week to three this week. He was given a chance to run in the freshman race but he opted for the longer distance. This kid is starting to turn heads on our team. His approach to every workout and race shows a maturity beyond his years. Stephen S. moved into the four spot with Brandon Machado

Brandon Machado

only a second behind him at the finish line.  Jeff Q. and Jonathon closed out our top seven.  Luciano, Christian and Corey also put in strong performances despite the humid weather. 

Our other freshmen got a rare opportunity to run a freshman race at a dual meet, so they took advantage.  Speedy Omar Diakhate led the way. He was followed by Dennis Rambaran, who very well might be the sleeper on this team. He seems to be the guy to keep an eye on as the season develops.  Brennan Giglio turned in another solid performance, and Savallya Boyini and Joseph Delgado rounded out the day for our frosh squad. 

Frosh: (l to r)Dennis, Savallya, Joseph, Omar, Brennan

Our ladies also got a look at the team that is the class of our league, as Dobbs Ferry looks very strong this year. Nevertheless with a complete team effort the Lady Raiders were able to notch victories over Irvington and Woodlands. Captain Naomi seems to have found her stride after a slow start against North Salem. She was followed by Megan "the rock" Mirtil. Absolutely nothing phases her. If there is a job to do, she does it.

Megan at the finish

Senior Jenn ran steady to be our #3. Maddy and Lauren took care of business and it was two teams behind us.  

From  here the team looks forward to competing on Saturday at the legendary Van Cortlandt Park for the Xavier Invitational.

Hamilton kicks off 2016 season

Hamilton runs at North Salem

Veterans look good, rookies impress

   The Hamilton Harriers kicked off their 2016 season this Wednesday with a scrimmage against North Salem, Putnam Valley and old foes Dobbs Ferry. Because most of the team didn't have enough practices to compete officially, the day could be best described as a practice in uniform. Practice, scrimmage, time-trial, call it what you will it gave us our first look at the 2016 squad.

pre-meet focus

   Here's what we saw: Lowell and Ryan are right where they should be as  our #1 and #2 runners. Both looked good as they ran the early season contest in a controlled relaxed style.  Probably the most exciting sight of the day was watching some of our rookies getting their first taste of XC on a sunny, humid, hot afternoon. Running an XC 5K is never an easy task, but newcomer Brandon Machado showed he was up to it blasting a blistering finish to claim the #3 spot. Brandon was followed by returning sophomore Jeffrey Quispe, who has done nothing but make Coach Aiello smile with his performances so far this young season. Our standout freshman Chris Yeosock was close on Jeffrey's heels to grab the #5 spot. Yeosock is showing a lot of raw talent and desire; two elements that could add up to something big. Luciano and Stephen rounded out our top 7 for the day. Corey Field, in only his second day back on the squad, followed as did Jonathon Medina and Christian Torres. Our other freshmen: Savallya B., Brennan G. and Joe D., who are still getting their XC legs, were not expected to run the whole race. However, even 2 miles on the tough course left them feeling a bit more experienced.

boys' squad getting ready to roll

   Our girls' team only had 4 runners on the starting line today. Megan Mirtil made an early season statement by being the first Lady Raider to finish. Captain Naomi Imaizumi followed not far behind, and senior Jenn Vargas looked good. Rookie Binta Mbaye was only out for a 2 mile run; it will be interesting to see how she develops as the season goes on.

    No doubt this team has a lot of work to do yet, but this scrimmage was a positive step forward. Our first real meet will be on Wednesday Sept. 14 against Croton. Stay tuned.

2016 Season Preview:

2016 Season Preview:

Lots of new faces as Hamilton Harriers get set for a new season

Summer vacation is winding down and it's almost time to head back to school. Of course that means it's time for another season of Alexander Hamilton cross country. It looks like the season will feature an interesting blend of new faces mixed in with some returning veterans. Though the team's final roster is far from settled. As always, some people won't show up till the first day of school, here is how things are shaping up so far.

early season practice

 The boys team will led by returning veterans Ryan Alicea and Lowell Pierrette. Ryan is a returning senior and is ready to start his second year as captain. He has done nothing but improve over his last three seasons, and there is no reason not to expect that to continue in 2016. Lowell returns after a spring track season where he proved himself to be Hamilton's premier hurdler. This XC season will hopefully prepare him to step up to the challenge of the steeplechase next spring, but that's a long way off. Both of these veterans are looking sharp during these early season practices and both are hoping to secure state meet berths in November.  Also coming back for a second season is Jeffrey Quispe. Quispe looks ready to race and he has impressed Coach Aiello with his early season fitness. Clearly, he was not just sitting around all summer. It looks like the team will also have returning veterans Jonathon Medina and Luciano Aprile to take shots at being in the scoring 5. Stephen Semidey rounds out the crew of seniors. Plagued by injury problems during his running career, Coach Aiello is sure that he can be a top 5 guy if he can stay healthy. Probably one of the most exciting things about this season is the addition of athletes on loan from Hamilton Baseball. Last year we were joined by Corey Field. This year Corey is returning with friends: Christian Torres, Brandon Machado and frosh Chris Yeosock. This influx of athleticism can do nothing but help the team going forward. Perhaps most exciting on the guys' side is that crew of new freshmen. Baseball's Chris Yeosock has been running for a couple of years and looks set to lead the frosh squad. Chris is joined by Savallya Boyini, Joe Delgado and Brennan Giglio. Not too much to say about the young guys yet, but I think you will be hearing their names a lot as the season progresses.

On the girls' side the Lady Raiders will be led by Captain Naomi Imaizumi. Also in her second year as team leader, Naomi has proved herself to be Hamilton's premier distance runner. Naomi is backed by seniors Maddy Diaz and Jennifer Vargas. Maddy, returns for her second season of XC; Jenn is back for her fourth season (two at Good Counsel). Both veterans' experience and enthusiasm will be key factors in how the girls perform this year. The girls' team will also be greatly helped by a Hamilton track hurdler. This time it's Megan Mirtil. Megan is clearly one of the most athletic women at Hamilton and she can only be a big plus for the cross country team. Returning sophomore Lauren Williams rounds out the squad, for now. Lauren is known for giving her best at all times and she is always ready to add bit of comic relief to any practice or meet.  Coach Aiello is hoping to see some more girls to appear when school starts. This year Keio Academy has five girls and we are going to need to have a full squad to race them. 

Check here weekly to see how things turn out...

2016