Pictured clockwise from top left: Fox Lane’s Evan Bender, Jacques Desforges and Jasper Sizer (second row) take off with the pack for the start of the Westchester County Championship race in Milton. Emma Barniv of John Jay heads to the finish line in 11th place overall. Sloan Wasserman of John Jay battles for the lead on her way to a third-place finish. Andy Condon of John Jay on his way to a second-place finish. Dylan Scott races to the finish line for 19th place overall to help John Jay boys win the Class B team title at the Westchester County Championships. Photos by Jim MacLean
By JIM MACLEAN
It was a beautiful day for a race as more than 500 runners overall gathered at the Hudson Valley Sports Dome in Milton, New York, to compete in the Westchester County Championships on Oct. 26.
Fast times were recorded all day long, and at the end of the day the second fastest time of them all was recorded by John Jay senior Andy Condon as he crossed the finish line at 15:33.6 to finish second in the boys varsity race. Ryan Sykes of Horace Greeley won the boys race, but Condon held off the rest of the field to finish second.
“It was a good fast race, Ryan went out so fast, it became a race for second and I positioned myself and finished well,” Condon said. “Great team race today, we won our class, that was our goal and I’m looking forward to a big finish for us at sectionals.”
With Condon leading the way, John Jay was able to win the Class B boys title with a score of 33, far ahead of second-place Pelham at 67. John Jay finished sixth overall as a team in the boys county championship race.
Dylan Scott was the second John Jay boy to cross the finish line in 19th place overall. Lucas Mongiello was 26th, Luke Pinney was 52nd, and Rohan Patel was 74th out of 236 runners to round out the top five for the team score.
Fox Lane earned a fifth-place overall finish in the boys race and the Foxes were third in a tough Class A race, trailing only New Rochelle and Scarsdale with a team score of 73.
Evan Bender led the way once again for Fox Lane as he finished seventh overall with a time of 16:05.2. Jacques Desforges was second for the Fox Lane boys in 27th place, with his brother Marc Desforges right behind in 28th place. Jasper Sizer followed in 31st place overall, and Conor Vallejo was fifth for the Foxes in 71st place overall to round out the team scoring.
In the girls Westchester County Championship race, it was a showdown between three elite runners all expected to do well at the state level, and Sloan Wasserman of John Jay was right there battling for the lead finishing third overall with a time of 17:40.7. Wasserman was more than 35 seconds ahead of fourth place finisher, as the trio of champion Caitlin Thomas of Hastings, Adriana Pettinelli of Scarsdale and Wasserman pulled ahead of the pack.
“She’s not happy, but she did what I wanted her to do, the course is tough and I’m happy with her race,” John Jay coach Dey Dey said of Wasserman. “She has the mindset to feel that she is good enough and she can do better. Most of the team ran P.R. after P.R., Emma Barniv did very well, they all ran well today.”
With Wasserman leading the way, John Jay finished sixth overall in the girls race, and fourth in a very competitive Class B race with a team score of 95.
Emma Barniv was the second John Jay girl to cross the finish line in 11th place overall. Ainsley Graham was third for John Jay in 44th place overall, and Mia Haimelin finished 80th overall.
Fox Lane finished sixth in the girls Class A race as a team, and the Foxes were in 15th place overall. Leading the way for the Foxes was Natalie Desforges in 47th place overall, and Riley New was second for Fox Lane in 84th place.
Both Fox Lane and John Jay will be training for a big finish at the Section 1 championships on Saturday, Nov. 9, at Bowdoin Park.