The cross country girls from Sachem East traveled upstate to Bowdoin Park in Wappingers Falls to compete in the Nike New York/ Northeast Regional meet this past weekend.
Led by senior Shannon O’Hehir (20:01) and soph Karli Murphy (20:14), the team placed 16th in the New York Championship Race featuring some of the top teams in the nation.
The top two teams (Fayetteville-Manlius and Saratoga Springs) both received all expense paid four-day trips to Oregon for the Nike Cross Country Nationals held at Portland Meadows this upcoming weekend. Nike has been sponsoring this meet for the last 13 years, inviting two teams from each of nine regions and four at large teams to compete in a true National Championship featuring the best programs in the Nation. On the Girls side a New York team has won every year, and has placed at least 2 teams in the top 5 every year. F-M is favored to defend it’s crown again this year.
Also turning outstanding performances for the Arrows were Val Romero (20:57), Jill Manfredi (21:20), senior Nikki Silvestre (21:32), senior Jayda Allen (21:33), Jaimie Fleming (21:47), Rachel Semetsis (21:46), and senior Katie Hempfling (22:18).
Head Coach Dan Schaub praised the team performance stating, “as a squad we ran really well- negative splits- strong finishes-and excellent times on a brutally cold day! This has been a wonderful group to coach and has been a really enjoyable season!”
Providing some inspiration to the squad was a visit from Sachem alumnus Rachel Paul the day before Thanksgiving. Paul, the only Sachem Runner to ever qualify for the Nike National X-C Championships, just a week earlier helped her Georgetown team to a 5th Place finish at the NCAA Cross Country Championships.