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Cross country: Sauquoit Valley's Kole Owens leads Mohawk Valley runners at states

jon rathbun, times telegram
·4 min read

VERONA - Four teams and two individual runners repeated as champions Saturday at the New York State Public High School Athletic Association's cross country championship meet held on a wetter and colder Vernon-Verona-Sherrill High School course than the Section III championship meet was run on one week earlier, but just as windy.

Kole Owens, Section III's Class D boys champion from Sauquoit Valley, ran fourth Saturday and took almost 20 seconds off his time from sectionals. Like other runners, Owens welcomed the conditions.

"Last week I ran 17:15," Owens said. "Today I was 20 seconds faster in a muddy, sloppy course. … I've never been a warm weather guy."

His time of 16:56.5 Saturday was 31st overall among 468 male finishers and earned Owens a spot at the federation meet in Wappingers Falls next weekend. The top 40 times at the public high school meet advance.

Sauquoit Valley senior Kole Owens ran fourth among the Class D boyas at the state cross country championship meet Saturday at Vernon-Verona-Sherrill.
Sauquoit Valley senior Kole Owens ran fourth among the Class D boyas at the state cross country championship meet Saturday at Vernon-Verona-Sherrill.

More:Kole Owens secures title as Section 3 cross country champ: Highlights from the meet

More:Section 3 boys cross country results for the 2022 season

"I'm very proud of myself," Owens said. "I had never made it to states before. To make it to states as a senior and get fourth, I'm very proud. I worked very hard for this."

Two of the three runners ahead of Owens were brothers Adam and Van Furman of Class D team champion Tri-Valley. Adam Furman, a senior, won the race while dam Furman, a sophomore, ran second; a third sibling, eighth-grader Anna Furman, ran second in the Class D girls race later in the day.

Sauquoit Valley placed fourth in the team competition with Alex Keller running 27th overall, Matthew Hanna 42nd, Johnny Mudge 68th and Frank Acquaviva 83rd in field of 114 runners. Mudge, who was sick last week and finished seventh among the Indians, took four minutes off his time from the sectional meet.

Center State Conference runners Grace Seeley (391) of Dolgeville, Emma Szarek (394) of Westmoreand and Miranda Mathews (393) of Waterville raced out to the lead at the start of the Class D girls race at the NYSPHSAA championship meet.
Center State Conference runners Grace Seeley (391) of Dolgeville, Emma Szarek (394) of Westmoreand and Miranda Mathews (393) of Waterville raced out to the lead at the start of the Class D girls race at the NYSPHSAA championship meet.

Joining the eldest Furman as individual champions among the boys were Solomon Holden-Betts of Baldwinsville who posted the fastest time of the day - 16:06.9 - in Class A, Maximus Haynia of Westhampton Beach in Class B, and Section II champion Bennett Melita from Fonda-Fultonville in Class C.

Holden-Betts had been beaten by one-10th of a second in a sprint to the finish line at sectionals; Nolan McGinn of Fayetteville-Manlius, the runner who won last week, finished sixth Saturday.

Melita had placed fourth in Class C as a junior and led the Braves to a fifth-place finish behind Bronxville Saturday with his time of 16:36.6. Teammate Matheu Dettenreider ran 14th and joined him on the podium for the awards ceremony.

Fonda-Fultonville senior Bennett Melita won the Class C boys race at the NYSPHSAA cross country championship meet Saturday.
Fonda-Fultonville senior Bennett Melita won the Class C boys race at the NYSPHSAA cross country championship meet Saturday.

Melita described the race conditions as "about the same" as last year, adding the course was "slippery, with big puddles."

The Class C boys ran the first of the day's eight races and Melita said he was happy to get on the course early before other runners had torn it up.

"I worked hard after getting fourth last year," Melita said. "I trained all summer. I really wanted this."

Joining Tri-Valley as repeat team champions for the boys were Corning in Class A and Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake in Class B.

Rain at the end of the week dampened the course and turned the hills into trickier mud challenges but did not slow the state's top runners. Angelina Napolean of Class C Allegany-Limestone and Brynn Bernard from Section III South Lewis in Class D repeated as individual champions while Karrie Baloga who ran third in Class A for Cornwall last fall won this year's Class B race and posted the fastest time of the day for the girls, 17:49.0, fast enough to win her race by a minute and a half.

Zariel Macchia from William Floyd High School in Mastic Beach won the Class A girls race and team titles for the girls went to Saratoga Springs, a repeat winner in Class A, Sayville in Class B, East Aurora in Class C and Voorheesville in Class D.

Oneida Indian Molly Myatt (383) embarks on the final downhill of the Class B girls race at the NYSPHSAA cross country championship meet Saturday. Myatt, a seventh grader, finished 10th in Class B.
Oneida Indian Molly Myatt (383) embarks on the final downhill of the Class B girls race at the NYSPHSAA cross country championship meet Saturday. Myatt, a seventh grader, finished 10th in Class B.

Molly Myatt of Oneida ran 10th in the Class B girls race and the New Hartford Spartans finished eighth as a team, led by Alexandria French in 34th place.

Cora HInsdill from Adirondack ran 14th among the Class C girls with freshman classmate Eliana Pitts finishing 38th.

Emma Szarek of Westmoreland and Olivia Schaffer of Section II Fort Plain/Canajoharie finished 11th and 12th, respectively, in the Class D girls race. Grace Seeley, the first-ever state meet qualifier from Dolgeville, was 26th.

Carter Stevens of Cooperstown/Milford ran 19th in the Class D boys race.

This article originally appeared on Times Telegram: Sauquoit Valley's Kole Owens leads Mohawk Valley runners at states