Sunday’s race at Finger Lakes Community College in Canandaigua was the fifth and final race in the 2019 Pete Glavin Upstate New York Cross Country Series. Although High Noon missed winning the Masters race by a single point, and thus the season, we still had a highly successful meet.
Individual Results | Team Results | Series Results
Photo Gallery (all pictures taken by Adam Engst)
High Noon Men
The High Noon men’s Open team—fresh off a commanding victory at Taughannock the week before—was at full strength. However, they were up against the dominant Syracuse Track Club team that won three of the five series races. Despite strong races from Adam Pacheck (5th), Alex Drazic (7th), Sam Lagasse (8th), Adam Berkowitz (10th), and Mik Kern (19th), the team racked up 49 points to STC’s 25. Nevertheless, our Open team still managed to take second for the season, beating out Checkers by two points and GVH by three.
The heartbreaker came in the Masters race, where we again fielded one of our strongest teams ever but were up against a loaded GVH squad. Scott Weeks (1st), Eric Sambolec (6th), Ian Golden (8th), Jay Hubisz (10th), and Earl Steinbrecher (14th, running down from Vets) combined for 39 points, just one point behind GVH’s 38. Unfortunately, since High Noon and GVH went into the final race tied for overall season points, that one point meant that we took second for the season, but still finished well ahead of third place Checkers.
Fielding a full and strong Masters team—coupled with one of our runners turning 50 during the season—meant that we were finally able to field a strong Vets team as well. The High Noon Vets took second to GVH. Sean Nicholson (5th) led the team, followed by Alex Colvin (6th, and running with a cold), newly minted vet Joey Randall (8th), Jean-Luc Jannink (12th), and Tom Mullins (19th, running injured). We were a distant fourth for the season due to not fielding a team for most of the races.
Finally, the High Noon SuperVets team of Casey Carlstrom (1st), Charlie Fay (7th), and Carl Franck (19th), took third in the race, and due to the number of teams in the category, fifth for the season.
FLRC Women
There was no competing with Checkers for the women’s Open division this year—in this race, they took 1-2-3-5-6 for a total of 17 points. But FLRC once again fought off GVH to take second. FLRC was led by Jenny Berkowitz (7th), Amanda King (11th), Julie Barclay (12th, running down from Masters), Cat Massa (15th), and Julie Daum (16th). After a slow start in the first race, the FLRC women took second in every subsequent race, locking up second place for the season as well.
On the Masters side, FLRC took fourth, thanks to Julie Randall (13th), Ruth Sproul (14th, running down from Super Vets), and Kim Kelchner (15th). They were third overall for the season.
The FLRC Vets finally put it all together, winning their first race of the year and the coveted case of beer for our post-season party. Caitlin Loehr (2nd) led the team, followed by Brenda Osovski (4th) and Gill Haines-Sharp (5th). That win, coupled with a couple of second places in previous races, enabled the FLRC women to take second for the series behind Checkers.
Individual Series Places
These awards require some explanation. For each race, the top 15 finishers receive points on this schedule: 20-17-14-12-11-10-9-8-7-6-5-4-
M1-19
2: Aidan Lazzaro (48 points)
3: Oliver Lambert (46 points)
4: Alexander Drazic (40 points)
5: Kieran Stewart (39 points)
6: Jack Phelan (36 points)
7: Benjamin Lambert (33 points)
M20-39
4: Adam Pacheck (42 points)
8: Sam Lagasse (35 points)
10: Adam Berkowitz (31 points)
13: Mikhail Kern (17 points)
14: Rich Heffron (16 points)
M40-49
2: Scott Weeks (57 points)
3: Eric Sambolec (51 points)
5: Brian Lazzaro (36 points)
9: Jay Hubisz (25 points)
11: Ian Golden (18 points)
12: Joey Randall (16 points)
18: Steven Folsom (7 points)
M50-59
2: Alex Colvin (51 points)
9: Earl Steinbrecher (25 points)
11: Sean Nicholson (24 points)
18: Jean-Luc Jannink (10 points)
20: Thomas Mullins (6 points)
M60-69
6: Casey Carlstrom (40 points)
7: Charlie Fay (33 points)
F20-39
6: Jenny Berkowitz (38 points)
13: Amanda King (11 points)
F40-49
4: Julie Barclay (48 points)
15: Julie Randall (6 points)
16: Kim Kelchner (1 points)
F50-59
3: Caitlin Loehr (52 points)
4: Brenda Osovski (41 points)
7: Sandra Gregorich (37 points)
8: Gillian Haines-Sharp (27 points)
15: Tonya Engst (7 points)
F60-69
9: Ruth Sproul (23 points)
In case you missed it, here are the High Noon and FLRC recaps from the previous races in the 2019 series.
Given that the greater Ithaca area doesn’t begin to compare in population size to the cities of Buffalo, Rochester, and Syracuse, we competed well above our expected per-capita, and everyone should be proud of the teams’ accomplishments. And as much as it was great to see so many of our runners and teams picking up prizes at the awards banquet, the main thing is that we fielded what has to be our largest set of teams ever and had a ton of fun for the season. That’s what cross country is all about—everyone plays, everyone counts, and everyone socializes before and after.
We hope you’ll join us next year for the 2020 season!
