Shoreham Wading-River High School girls cross-country coach Paul Koretzki needed only two words to describe his team.
“We’re loaded,” he said. READ
Tag: girls cross-country
Katherine Lee fell short in her attempt to win a second straight state championship on Saturday, but the Shoreham-Wading River High School sophomore came close, finishing third in the New York State Public High School Athletic Association girls cross-country championships. READ
Paul Koretzki typically doesn’t do much talking when he sends his runners on the Shoreham-Wading River High School girls cross-country team off to the starting line for races. He will tell them to have a good time and say, “See you at the finish.” READ
Katherine Lee had a plan for the girls championship race in the Section XI Division Cross-Country Championships on Tuesday: Take the lead early and stay there.
Talk about quality. The Shoreham-Wading River, Bishop McGann-Mercy and Riverhead high school girls cross-country teams combined to finish with an impressive 12-3 record with two Suffolk County titles in 2014. READ
The Riverhead girls cross country team, pictured in a meet earlier in the season, improved to 3-1 with a win Tuesday. (Credit: Charles Christ)
Heading into the season this year, Riverhead girls cross country coach Justin Cobis didn’t know how his team might match up in a league that featured plenty of new teams compared to last year. Now as the dual meet season winds down, Cobis has gotten the answer.
The Blue Waves are right there with every team in the league. (more…)
ROBERT O’ROURK PHOTO | Shoreham-Wading River eighth-grader Katherine Lee, shown during the division championship, finished second in Class B Saturday in 20:07.37 at Sunken Meadow State Park.
SECTION XI CHAMPIONSHIPS
Before the official announcement, the word was conveyed to the Mattituck girls cross-country team that it had indeed won a second straight Suffolk County Class C championship on Saturday. The Tuckers immediately hugged each other with tears of joy streaming down their faces.
Three Tuckers finished among the top eight places and six were among the first 18 in the Section XI Championships at Sunken Meadow State Park. They gave Mattituck 39 points, 6 less than the runner-up, Center Moriches (in cross country, less points are better), and all of them will compete in the state meet that will be held Saturday at Queensbury High School.
Mattituck freshman Melanie Pfennig was the second Class C runner to complete Sunken Meadow State Park’s reconfigured 3.1-mile course in 21 minutes 2.99 seconds. Center Moriches junior Ryleigh Donegan won the race in 20:52.14.
Shortly after, the rest of the Mattituck runners, not a single senior among them, crossed the finish line: Mia Vasile-Cozzo (seventh in 22:54.39), Audrey Hoeg (eighth in 22:55.33), Kaylee Bergen (11th in 23:18.96), Tiana Baker (15th in 24:17.89) and Sascha Rosin (18th in 24:31.67).
Bishop McGann-Mercy sophomore Meg Tuthill qualified for the state meet for the second year in a row by virtue of her fifth-place finish in 22:38.30.
Shoreham-Wading River eighth-grader Katharine Lee, with only several 3.1-mile races under her belt, surprised even herself by coming in second in the Class B race. Lee’s time was 20:07.37, which was second only to the 19:37.41 put up by Miller Place senior Tiana Guevara.
Two other Shoreham-Wading River runners, Kaitlyn Ohrtmann (20:32.52) and Alexandra Hays (20:46.21), finished eighth and ninth, respectively. Ohrtmann qualified for the state meet; Hayes missed qualifying by one place.
The Wildcats (79 points) finished second in the team scoring to runaway champion Miller Place (34).
In the Class D race, Southold senior Katie Connolly took third place to earn a ticket upstate. She posted a time of 23:26.17.
ROBERT O’ROURK PHOTO | Shoreham-Wading River sophomore Kaitlin Ohrtman returns to lead the Wildcats this season.
PREVIEW
Like jittery runners at the starting line, straining forward and waiting for the gun to go to go off, releasing a flood of humanity onto the course, the Shoreham-Wading River Wildcats are anxious for the 2013 girls cross-country season to begin. And why shouldn’t they be? The Wildcats could do some nice things this season.
Last year Shoreham was the League VI runner-up with a 5-1 record, finishing 13th in Suffolk County. And that was with a young team. The Wildcats are still relatively young, but even more importantly, coach Paul Koretzki said, “I think we’re going to be pretty good.”
For starters, Shoreham has an all-county runner in sophomore Kaitlin Ohrtman, who ran a not-too-shabby time of 20 minutes 46 seconds on Sunken Meadow State Park’s 3.1-mile course.
“She looks very good,” Koretzki said. “She has a beautiful stride, she really does.”
In addition, Shoreham can count on freshman Alexandra Hays, junior Maddie Kelly and junior Rose Andrews, all of whom made the all-league second team. Hays finished the season as the team’s No. 2 runner; Kelly was No. 4 and Andrews was No. 5.
Katherine Lee, an eighth-grader, is expected to make an impact in her first season with the team. “She has a nice credential and is going to fit in real well with this team,” said Koretzki, who has seen Lee run a mile in 5:07.
Koretzki considers Shoreham to be among the top 10 teams in the county. As for the league title, that may be asking for too much this year.
“Miller Place, I think, is too strong,” Koretzki said. “Maybe we’re one and a half sprained ankles away.”
This is a year of change for Riverhead (2-3 last season). Not only do the Blue Waves have a new coach, Justin Cobis, but they will be running in a different league, making the jump from League IV to League III.
While Patrick Burke, who previously coached both Riverhead’s boys and girls teams, will continue as the boys coach, Cobis takes over the girls team for his first varsity cross country head coaching job. His team will face a challenge, too, in League III.
“We’re running with some big dogs like Bay Shore and Connetquot,” Cobis said. “It’s going to be a good experience for the girls. They’re going to be running with some of the best teams in the county.”
If nothing else, Cobis believes the tougher competition should help with his runners’ times.
Rachel Conti, a senior, was one of Riverhead’s better runners last year. Her best time at Sunken Meadow State Park was about 22:36.
Cobis is anticipating notable improvement in Conti and sophomores Megan Carrick and Meghan Van Bommel, who are all entering only their second cross-country season.
The team also has varsity veterans in Maurinn Sullivan, Nina Schlosberg, Heather O’Connor and Isabella Marcucci. They are all juniors except for Schlosberg, a senior.
New to the team are freshman Gabriella Marcucci, eighth-grader Grace Dillingham and junior Madison Woolley.
Carrick, Conti, Dillingham and Van Bommel attended the Lakonda Running Camp in Port Jervis, N.Y. this summer, running the hilly landscape every day. “For them to get a full week, running twice a day, running 50-plus miles a week, all on hills, it’s an opportunity that they wouldn’t have out here,” said Cobis.
In addition, some of the Blue Waves trained over the summer at Indian Island County Park in Riverhead, where the team will run in three league meets as well as an invitational this season.
Cobis said he is excited about his team’s potential. He said, “I think we’re going to be right in the middle of League III in Suffolk County, and that’s not a bad place to be.”
