Upstate Conference Meet – October 18th, 2014

Nothing embodies the season of fall like a Cross Country Conference Meet.  As the leaves shift from green to gold and the days slide from the glow of June to the harshness of November, the Conference Meet marks a point of transition for our athletes.  It is the last race for more than 100 of our guys, and they aimed to hold on to summer for just a little longer.  Results     Daily Herald Article

L-R: Michael Widmann, Austin Kinne, Dominic Dina, Aidan Livingston, Connor Horn, Caleb Ferguson, Daniel Weiss

It began with our youngest runners looking to capture a third straight Conference title.  For a sophomores in particular, this marked the consummation of a season of pain, with such promising disciples as Jackson Jett, Josh Mollway, Scott Anderson, Michael Vivo, and Rishy Pandey battled injury for many months. The race belonged to super soph, Matt Milostan (1st place, 15:52), who transitioned from a chaser to a true front runner the day after his 15th birthday. Twin phenoms Danny Winek (2nd, 16:09) and Ryan Kennedy (3rd, 16:18) kept close, and the stalwart Josh Patel (8th, 16:33) and resurgent Jackson Jett (9th, 16:37) closed the door for a decisive win.  Season PRs came to Scott Anderson (15th, 16:51), Erik Hueneke (18th, 17:01), Paul Neubauer(30th, 17:18)  Michael Vivo (43rd, 17:33), Joe Tarszowicz (31st, 17:22), Quinton Quagliano (49th, 17:44),Danny Speckels (61st, 17:52), Matt Lindell (95th, 18:30), and Austin Nguyen (102nd, 18:34), while Tyler Bombacino (16th, 16:58) and Alex Johnson (35th, 17:25) ended their freshmen campaigns with typically heroic efforts. By race’s end, the freshmen were no longer tenderfoots and the sophomores no longer green.  They had proved themselves as tough and callused as winter.

Matt Horsley and Jake McEneaney

Our Varsity took the line hoping to secure a ninth straight Conference title. For the second straight race, junior Connor Horn (1st place, 15:02) and seniors Dan Weiss (3rd, 15:12) and Michael Widmann (4th, 15:13) did battle against a flinty pack of front runners before outlasting the field.  Perhaps the race of the day belonged toAidan Livingston (5th, 15:16), who pushed the second mile to solidify his claim to 4th man.  Juniors Dominic Dina (10th, 15:28), Austin Kinne (12th, 15:30), and Caleb Ferguson (13th, 15:37) all earned All-Conference honors, traversing bridges, vaulting creeks, and mounting a particularly nasty hill with grit and iron resolve. It was a memorable end to our time in the Upstate 8, and we’ll work the next three weeks to shrink the gap between Connor and the pack.

However, the most important races belonged to our seniors, the majority of whom populated the Open Race.  Led by Jake McEneaney (1st place, 15:37.6) leaning past Matt Horsley (2nd 15:37.7), the Open Race results testified to a season of hard work and several careers of dedication. Seniors Max Rainer (16:05), Colin Weidman (16:20),Matt Avila (16:41), Matthew Stanford (17:01), John Stavopolous (17:05), Kellen Shaffer (17:06), Kyle Bender (17:31), Brad Daw (17:38 on his birthday), Dylan Cooke (17:43), Luke Kendall (17:48), Mitch McGladdery (17:55), Andrei Blanca (18:08), Raymond Pu (18:08), Mark Jerabek (18:11), Shariq Bokhari(18:15), Mike Boetel (18:26), Ismail Ahmad (18:44), Harsha Vakayalapati (19:22) Josh Cawley (19:25),Tommy Berard (19:45), Frank Kariuki (19:59), Faraz Khan (20:06), Zach Jones (20:22), Drew Cramer (22:52), and Hector Azuara (24:12) all finished their Neuqua running careers with integrity, honor, and a dazzling constellation of PRs.  Junior Patrick Wolak (16:03) earned a place on the State team, while juniors Wylie Anderson (16:09), Vishy Singh (16:22), Shiva Singh (16:23), Anand Haran (16:34), Will Ackerman (17:01),Patrick “Coach P” Conway (17:02), Michael Block (17:03), and Tim Fanelle (17:13) all wrote heroic finales for their season.

This meet ends Neuqua’s 18 year tenure in the Upstate 8 Conference.  The talent, intensity, and support of these teams have challenged, inspired, and humbled us over the years, and we are grateful for the friendships of so many fellow coaches and runners.  We hope to finish the season making our conference proud, and as dawn goes down to day, we look forward to the final days of our season.