Unionville PA tops No. 1 Fayetteville-Manlius

By Doug Binder, DyeStat Editor

(Updates throughout the weekend)

Courtney Smith and her Unionville PA teammates won the McQuaid Invitational at Genesee Valley Park in New York on Saturday and dealt seven-time national champion Fayetteville-Manlius a rare loss. 

Smith was sensational out front, running 16:46 on the three-mile course for the win. 

Unionville put three runners in front of F-M's No. 2 and finished with a team score of 45. Fayetteville-Manlius, led by Annika Avery's sixth-place finish, scored 79. 

Mickey Burke of Rush Henrietta, w;ho committed to Syracuse during the week, opened with a victory in 14:25. He was 20 seconds clear at the finish. Fayetteville-Manlius edged Liverpool 62-66 in a matchup featuring two of New York's best teams.

At the Bowdoin Park Classic in Wappingers Falls, N.Y., the No. 1 ranked boys from Christian Brothers Academy (New Jersey) demonstrated their depth with a dominant performance. Mike McClemens led CBA with the individual win (16:02) while the team put five runners in the top 15 and averaged 16:16.22, good for No. 3 all-time on the course, according to the Newark Star-Ledger's Jim Lambert.

--- Minnesota ---

At the Roy Griak Invitational, Obsa Ali of Richfield (Minnesota) and Jordyn Colter of Cherry Creek (Colorado) won the Gold Division races at one of the Midwest's biggest meets.

Ali ran 15:30.8 and beat a field that included Olin Hacker of Madison West (Minnesota), Addison DeHaven of Brookings (South Dakota), Chandler Austin of Boone (Iowa) and Connor Olson of Wayzata (Minnesota). Minnesota power Wayzata swept the boys and girls team titles and did so impressively. The girls scored 58 points in a field of 50 teams. The boys scored 116.

--- Pennsylvania ---

At the Carlisle Invitational, Mady Clahane of Cumberland Valley ran a fast time of 17:28 for 5,000 meters to blow away a strong field that included Amelia Paladino of University (W.V.).

Carlisle junior Zach Brehm ran 15:28 on his home turf for the fastest time of the day. 

See John Nepolitan's photos here.

--- Rhode Island ---

In Warwick, Abbey McNulty of Bishop Feehan (Massachusetts) won a marquee showdown with Claire Howlett of Westhill (Connecticut), 17:48 to 18:01 in the girls 5K championship race. 

Meanwhile, New Jersey's Red Bank Catholic girls got a big team victory with 66 points. Bishop Feehan was second with 88 points. 

Mansfield (Massachusetts), led by overall winner Dan Romano, won the boys title with 73 points.

--- Massachusetts ---

Report from Chris Lotsbom: Nick Carleo of Newburyport added to his breakout month with a victory Saturday at the MSTCA Frank Kelley Bay State Invitational at Wrentham, Mass., covering 3.1 miles in 15:35 in the Division 2 varsity race.

Carleo kicked off varsity competition in the Division 2 contest, separating from Paul Hogan (Burlington) and Matthew Mahoney (Swampscott) in the final mile. Carleo would go on to successfully defended his title from last year and ran 21 seconds faster than his 2012 time.

Carleo said that he feels fresher and well ahead of where he was at this point last year.

"I am happy with where I am right now," said the junior, who broke a 23-year-old Newburyport home course record on September 18. "There's still work to be done though."

In the Division 2 team results, Carleo's Newburyport was narrowly edged by Tewksbury, 97-102.

Olivia Lantz of Manchester Essex was the class of the field in the Division 2 girls race, winning by a margin of 35 seconds. Her time for the 5 km, rolling course was 18:39. This is Lantz's first cross country season.

"It felt good," said the 4:57 miler. "I'm still working on pacing myself at the end."

Marblehead and Bedford each tallied 128 points for a tie atop the team results, though the edge went to Marblehead as their sixth place finisher was well ahead of Bedford's.

Later, Lowell High School stole the show in the Division 1 races. Senior Johnny Abraham won the boys race, passing Peabody's Drew Fossa in the final 100 meters, while Lowell sophomores Kaley and Alexandra Richards finished first and second in the girls race. Abraham's winning time was 15:52.3, while Richards's was 19:01.9.

Cambridge Rindge & Latin prevailed in the boys team standings, scoring 65 points. Peabody (83) and Lowell (85) rounded out the top three.

For the girls, Lowell High placed four in the top 20 and earned a final score of 65. Peabody was second (109) and Wellesley third (144).

--- Montana ---

In Missoula, at the Mountain West Classic, the Bozeman (Montana) girls solifified their standing as the top team in the Northwest with 46 points. The Hawks beat Coeur d'Alene, a 2012 NXN qualifier, of Idaho (97 points). Sehome (Washington) was third with 112 points. 

Individually, Makena Morley of Bigfork won impressively with 16:43 on the three-mile course. She won by 46 seconds. 

Glacier finished atop the boys standings, beating Bozeman for the title, 173-188. Aidan Reed from Helena High edged Nicholas Hauger of Shadle Park (Washington) for the individual win, 15:07 to 15:08. 

--- Oregon ---

At Nike Pre-Nationals, runners got an authentic Portlands Meadows experience. High winds, mud and soaking rains gave the participants a taste for what it was like last December at the Nike Cross Championships. 

The mud was no wear near as thick, though. Alexa Efraimson of Camas (Wash.) bolted from the starting line and cut through the wind with a decisive win in 18 minutes flat. Ella Donaghu of Grant, who beat Efraimson a couple of weeks ago, could not stay with the World Youth Championships bronze medalist this time. 

"I look at this meet as being the start of my season," Efraimson said. "I had a late start (to cross country) because of my track season."

In the Jim Danner Championship race for boys, Summit's Matthew Maton threw in a surge around the two-mile mark and Pocatello (Idaho) standout Elijah Armstrong couldn't cover it. Maton made some amends on the course where he fell and got trampled (and suffered a mild concussion) last December. No. 2 Gig Harbor (Washington) ran under control as a group, worked on shoring up its fifth and sixth spots, and won the team trophy easily. 

--- California ---

Blake Haney won a huge invitational race for the second week in a row. This time he took the best shot from US#4 Joe Hardy of Seattle Prep and won the Stanford Invitational's seeded race in 14:58. Hardy was less than a second back and Steven Fahy from La Costa Canyon and Estevan De La Rosa of Arcadia were also in the hunt. Sophomore Fiona O'Keeffe of Davis won the girls seeded race in 17:38, but US#4 Anna Maxwell won the Division 4 race in 17:22 for the fastest time of the day.

Check out DyestatCal for more Stanford Invitational coverage, including videos of the races shot by Ian Terpin.  

Also Saturday at the Bell-Jeff Invitational, there was an outstaning duel in the Varsity Red girls race between Bethan Knight of Northwood and Marissa Williams of Pacific Palisades. The two of them were two minutes ahead of the field and it was Knight pulling off an upset, finishing the three-mile course in 16:42. Williams was second in 16:56.

At the Dana Hills Invitational, Garrett Corcoran of Villa Park ran 14:20 for a big win over Sydney Gidabuday of El Modena and Megan Huebner of La Quinta won the girls race in 17:13. There were more than 3,500 athltes in the meet.

 On Thursday afternoon in California, the Canyon (Santa Clarita) girls dealt Foothill League rival Saugus its first league loss in eight years, with a very close 35-37 score. In a six-team league meet, Canyon and Saugus had 11 of the top 14 finishers.

Up front, Samantha Ortega won the three-mile race in 19:35.22 but Canyon got its 2-3-4 runners (Concepcion Flores, Kyla Danforth, Shalyn Mabritto) ahead of Saugus' third. Canyon is the alma mater of U.S. track stars Lauren Fleshman and Alysia Montano. See the race video here.

--- Colorado ---

Niwot senior Elise Cranny stepped up to enter a college race, the Rocky Mountain Shootout, and won a 5.8-kilometer race in 20:39. She defeated a pair of high quality University of Colorado redshirts, Carrie Verdon and Erin Clark.