CROSS COUNTRY
EA cross country running with balance
Both Blue Devil teams targeting Fed meet
When it comes to East Aurora cross country, there is balance again.
This year, both teams are out to get to the Federation championships.
The EA girls have been one of the very best programs in the state, if not the country, for the last few years as winners of three straight Class B state championships.
The boys may not run up that kind of resume, but they certainly haven’t been slow. The boys have won three sectional titles in the last four years.
“Winning a state title just doesn’t happen — the girls make it look easier than it really is,” said East Aurora coach Walt McLaughlin. “Any time you reach that state level, you’re doing really great things. It’s really nice to have both boys and girls squads trying to win what would be the biggest races of their careers.”
That race is the Federation championship, held each year at Bowdoin Park in Poughkeepsie. Only the champions of the state’s five classes — along with just seven at-large squads — earn a bid to that meet.
The season’s first rankings certainly put both EA teams on the short list to qualify for that even shorter list.
In the first state girls poll, the EA girls were ranked first in Class B.
The first boys poll was a Top 25 teams across all classes, and EA was 14th. The Blue Devils were the only Section VI boys team to be ranked, and they were third among Class B schools behind No. 8 Honeoye Falls- Lima of Section V and No. 12 Shore-ham- Wading River of Section XI (Suffolk County, Long Island).
“We’ve always looked at both teams — we want to have solid boys and girls program, not just one team,” said McLaughlin. “We’ve always coached that way . . . we’re an equal opportunity team.”
Two seniors leading the way for the boys team are returning All-WNY first teamers Scott Anderson and Lyle O’Brien. Anderson won last year’s Section VI Class B race, while O’Brien has been “terrific” according to McLaughlin.
“This has been a long-range plan since they were freshmen,” McLaughlin said of the boys. “It was a good group, and we said if they kept working hard, they could be a pretty solid team down the road. We’ve reached that mile marker, now it’s a matter of buliding off what we’ve done.”
The typically deep squad includes sophomore standouts Alex Weberg, Kevin O’Connor and Matt Hoeh, junior Tom Neu and seniors Brad Whitney, Matt Malican, Jack Wynes and Phil Trzyzewski.
Walt and wife/co-coach Marty McLaughlin — who have referred to their program as one big family — have six children. The eldest has reached the varsity. Seventh graders have just been allowed to try to participate on varsity teams at East Aurora, which was right on time for daughter Marta McLaughlin.
“She’s been exposed to running for a long time,” McLaughlin deadpanned. “It’s fun [having her on the team] but what applies to everyone from the coaching staff applies to her. Just being allowed to participate is a big benefit to her to have that opportunity that she’s had to earn.”
EA’s top four girls are familiar names to leader boards in Western New York: seniors Kristen Weberg, Erin Crawford and Megan Hulton (all second-team All-WNYers last year) and junior Catherine Phillips, who was a first team All-WNYer.
Senior Ashley Beyer, sophomores Sarah Mars, Emily Crawford and Abby Boss (a JV champion last year) and freshman Allyssa McLaughlin (a niece of Walt’s) provide the team with the kind of depth that earns national attention. EA was ranked in the national Super 25 last season by The Harrier magazine.
Neither team was ranked in the preseason top 25.
“That’s a good place to be,” said McLaughlin. “We absolutely have to take it one step at a time. Hopefully we’re healthy and in shape by the end of the season.”
Around the course
The defending boys champions in the ECIC are: Clarence (Division I), Starpoint (II) and East Aurora (III); there will be an additional winner this year as the conference has expanded to four divisions. On the girls side, last year’s champs were West Seneca West (I), Starpoint (II) and East Aurora (III).
Jordan Hamm of Canisius opened the Crusaders’ season by winning his first major invitational at JFK, averaging 4:57 per mile for the 2z-mile race.
The EA girls program is so deep it can withstand a transfer of one of its top returning runners — Paige Pelton is now at Nichols.
Among the Buffalo Public Schools, the stage is again set for a climactic final race. On Oct. 16, traditional powers Hutch-Tech, City Honors and daVinci will battle.
On the boys side, Tech returns four of the top five that helped it to a runner-up finish in last year’s Class A meet: Alex Simon, Michael McClurkin, Donte Ettipio and Willim Serediuk. Hutch-Tech has the top female returner in defending individual champion Rochelle Thomas.
The Niagara-Orleans League returns plenty of familiar faces on the girls side as 42 of the top 55 in last year’s league meet were underclassmen. Among those are Erin Hannah and Emily Harrington of Newfane, which returns its top seven. For the boys, sophomore Kevin Hanes and freshman Michael Reubens return for defending champion Wilson.
The Fredonia boys and girls teams probably don’t mind their classification change this year — when the Hillbillies moved down from Class B to C, it meant they didn’t have to chase after East Aurora anymore. Maple Grove and Gowanda are ready to challenge in the CCAA as well.
Mark your calendar
• The top boys and girls in cross country all head to the 44th McQuaid Invitational at Genesee Valley Park in Rochester. The East Aurora girls will likely face two-time defending national champion Fayetteville- Manlius of Section III (Syracuse area) and Burnt Hills of Section I (Albany area) during a busy day of racing. The first of 24 races will start at 9 a. m. with the final race scheduled for 4:15 p. m.
Senior Joe Whelan of Hamburg, who is hoping to qualify for this year’s Foot Locker championships in San Diego, will compete.
Postseason dates to remember:
Oct. 4: Southern Tier Invitational at Allegany-Limestone.
Oct. 10: Dunkirk Invitational at Point Gratiot Park.
Oct. 11: Alden Stampede.
Oct. 18: Clarence Fall Classic at Akron Falls State Park.
On the Web
For more names and notes on cross country, go to the Prep Talk blog at buffalonews.com/blogs.
