By JIM MACLEAN
Not every race goes exactly as planned, and when you are running in a really good race against the best runners in the state, the end result may not be what you were hoping for by the time you cross the finish line.
That was certainly the case for runners experiencing the chaos that can result from the New York State Federation meet, held Nov. 30, at Bowdoin Park in Wappingers Falls. While the Sectional and N.Y. state championships are broken up into four different classes, the Federation meet is a mob scene, one big girls’ race and one big boys’ race, all the top qualifiers from the state championships combined with the catholic and private school champions packed together trying to make a move.
Both John Jay’s Andy Condon and Sloan Wasserman were there at the end in the award ceremony receiving a medal for finishing in the top 40 in their respective races, but neither one of the Wolves were happy with their results.
Just two weeks after racing on the same course at Bowdoin Park to win Section 1 titles, and one week after finishing second in the state championships, both runners had earned the chance to compete in the Federation championships.
Condon crossed the finish line in 19th place in the boys’ race with a time of 16:29.1. Last year he did not qualify for the Federation meet, so it was another impressive race to show how far he has come in his senior season. However, his time was three seconds behind what he ran two weeks ago to win the Section 1 Class B crown, and he was hoping to finish a little higher and faster on Saturday. He was stuck in the pack at the start and unable to make a move to challenge the leaders, with Ryan Sykes of Horace Greeley crossing the line in first.
“I definitely wanted to do a little bit better, but if you told me last year I would be standing here I would have doubted it a bit,” admitted Condon. “It went out fast and I had to spend the rest of the race trying to pick people off. Very impressive competition, tons of great runners and you have to give it your all, there was a pack ahead of me and I kept trying to move up as much as possible. Getting a medal is nice, but definitely could have done better. You’re never going to have a perfect race, and I’ll take what I can from this race and learn from it.”
As a senior, Condon finished off his cross-country career for the Wolves and he will compete in college next fall at the University of Richmond.
Wasserman crossed the finish line at 19:18 in 22nd place in the girls’ race, and she was also disappointed with her race from start to finish. Two weeks ago, she ran the same course 17 seconds faster to win the Section 1 Class B championship, and last week she was second at the state championships. Despite her finish, Wasserman knows she has another shot next year and this one race does not sum up her season overall.
“That was the worst race of my season unfortunately,” Wasserman said. “Slow time, bad pacing, I did not feel good from the start, I was sick, but it’s OK. I had a great day last Saturday and I know I can compete with them, but today was just not my day and that’s OK — I had a good season and I’ll be back.”
John Jay coach Dey Dey knows what both runners are capable of doing, and he admits they did not have a good day, but just qualifying to be on the course at the Federation meet is a big accomplishment and they both had a great cross-country season and can look forward to indoor and outdoor track.
“Sometimes you have bad days, sometimes you have good days, but today was not that day,” coach Dey said of Wasserman and Condon. “Sloan wasn’t really feeling it and I saw that, but she gave it everything she had. Hopefully, next season she’ll be here again and it will be different. Andy ran OK, but he had the same problem, he didn’t start well and he was moving up. It’s impressive for him to be here, he put the work in and he’s here. A year ago who would have known that Andy would be here in the top 20.”
Jim MacLean Photos — Top, Andy Condon of John Jay on his way to a medal at Federation cross-country championships. Bottom, Sloan Wasserman races down a hill in Federation race at Bowdoin Park.