CROSS COUNTRY
Whelan, Symoniak win cross country titles
East Aurora’s girls claim fourth consecutive state crown
Section VI crowned two individual champions and one team champ at Saturday’s New York State Cross Country Championships at Sunken Meadow Park on Long Island.
Senior Joe Whelan of Hamburg won the Class A boys race and junior Brenna Symoniak of Amherst won the Class B girls race. East Aurora’s girls captured the Class B team title.
The event was run in 60-degree temperatures with a little rain toward the end.
It was East Aurora’s fourth state title in a row. Five years ago the Blue Devils lost by one point. “With all that said, it’s really about this year. They really had something to prove and worked hard to do that,” said coach Walt McLaughlin.
The Blue Devils had five girls in the top 20: seventh, 10th, 16th, 19th and 20th. EA’s margin of victory was 23 points over Pearl River of Section I.
EA advanced to the Federation meet next Saturday at Bowdoin State Park in Wappingers Falls.
Symoniak ran a patient race. She put in a good move in the last mile to distance herself from the field.
Whelan won by a comfortable 26 second- margin in 16:06, the second-fastest time of the day. The fastest time was 15:59 by Alex Haitz of III-Fayetteville-Manilus.
The East Aurora boys were third in the Class B race, finishing behind the state’s top two ranked teams: Shoreham-Wading River of Section I and Honeoye-Falls-Lima of Section V. Lyle O’Brien was top for the Blue Devils placing seventh in 16:45.
The Barker boys placed third in the Class D race, losing a second-place tiebreaker to Notre Dame Batavia. Both teams scored 82 points before they went to the six-man time to break the tie.
In the Class C race, Fredonia girls were fifth. Falconer’s Shannon Murphy took seventh.
All-Catholics
BOYS: Senior Jordan Hamm of Canisius won the 56th Monsignor Martin Association All-Catholic Cross Country title, covering the 5K course at Cazenovia Park in 16:08. The Crusaders also won the team title, marking their fourth win a row and sixth in the last seven years.
“He (Hamm) broke away early and kept a pretty comfortable pace,” said coach Brian Lombardo. “He gave himself a good cushion without having to dig too deep. His last two-three races he’s been very good.”
The last Canisius runner to repeat as All-Catholic champion was Paul Riley, who was a three-time winner from 2000 to 2002. Mike O’Rourke was a double winner for the Crusaders in 1980 and 1981.
Hamm advanced to next weekend’s state Federation meet along with teammates Barry Fitzgerald, Cameron Gallivan, Colin Bogdan, Elias Dawli, Andrew Gritzmacher and Jake Moy, as well as Chuck Mule and Ben Kuch of St. Joe’s and Sean Redfield of St. Francis.
Canisius is ranked No. 7 in the state in Class A. It finished the regular season 5-0.
GIRLS: Freshman Kitty Mahoney of Nardin won the All-Catholic Cross Country title, running her season-best 20:44 at Caz. The Gators finished 1-2-3 to run away with the team title, their second in a row and seventh in the 25-year history of the event. Molly Munchauer was second and Elise Johnson third. Johnson had been sidelined for 44 days with a stress fracture.
Mahoney will move on to next weekend’s state Federation meet along with teammates Munchauer, Johnson, Liz Stanko, Laura Garbes and Ann Pyrak, Liz Daly. Also qualifying were Kateri Walsh of Mount Mercy, Paige Peltan of Nichols and Gabby Leo of Immaculata.
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