Sachem North’s girls XC team boarded the team bus at 5:30 a.m. for the just-over two hour trip to Bear Mountain State Park. The team warm-up began minutes after arriving at the park as the Frosh squad would head to their starting line a little more than 30 minutes later and the Varsity and JV squads hoped to run on as much of the race course before the course was closed before the Suffern XC Invitational’s first race start at 8:00.
A little more than three hours after arriving at Bear Mountain, Sachem’s race day was over and team members – most in their first-ever run on the famous Hudson Valley course – were pleased with their collective race results.
Team captain Elise Ramirez (18:39.8) led Sachem in the Varsity A Race. Elise took off with the race leaders through the park fields that lead to Hessian Lake. Elise finished the lake loop with a five runner pack that was chasing race leaders Rachel Ludwikowski and Kate Zendell of Suffern.
Runners headed up the course’s toughest challenge appropriately named Big Hill. Suffern’s duo and eventual first and second place runners emerged first. Elise broke away from her pack and continued her chase with a growing gap between her and the rest of the field.
Elise took third in the race. She was followed by Gabby Mott (19:40.0), Amanda Carlson (20:39.0), Kaitlyn Licata (21:02.5), Samantha Giambrone (21:08.1), Krista Goodman (22:10.6) and Julia Reilly (22:22.0) as Sachem took second place in team scoring in the race with 95 points behind race winner Suffern (27). Sachem’s strong efforts held off strong squads from Bayport-Blue Point (107), St. Anthony’s (115) and Nanuet (121) in the talent-laden race field of 24 teams.
Kaitlyn Goodman (22:21.6) led the JV squad with her 19th place finish in the crowded JV Race field. Brigid Rattiger (22:26.8), Hailey Lynch (23:45.2), Cassie Pixler (24:02.4) and Emily Leath (24:16.7) followed as the JV squad took seventh place in the race. Nicole Batinsey (13.01.6) and Gia Carr (13:18.8) led the Frosh squad with their strongest races of the season.
Sachem continues its League 2 dual meet season at Belmont Lake State Park to take on Lindenhurst on Tuesday.
-Submitted by Sachem North coach Alex Young