Sports

Mepham state qualifiers talk mud-soaked course

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To understand how trying the 2014 New York State Cross-Country Championship was, you only need compare Charles Skidmore’s performances over the past two years. The Mepham High School senior first ran in the state championship in 2013. He placed 77th in a time of 16:17. This year he moved up 19 places, to 58th, but his time dropped by 45 seconds, to 17:02.

Frigid temperatures that plummeted below freezing on the night before the Nov. 8 race combined with a mud-soaked coarse to slow the field.

“My hands were purple before the race,” Skidmore said. More than the cold, though, mud was the runner’s enemy that day. “It was just so soft, you sank into it,” Skidmore said.

Bud McQuillan, Mepham’s head cross-country coach, explained that race officials had expected the course to freeze over –– the race was held at SUNY Canton, on the border with Canada. A frozen course would have provided a solid surface to run on. Overnight, it was looking like that would be the case, but the temperature rose to 45 degrees Fahrenheit in the hours before the race, and the course turned into one long mud pit.
“Your foot would just sink two inches into the mud,” McQuillan said. “It made for a messy, messy course.”

A number of runners lost their racing shoes, called “spikes.” At the awards ceremony after the race, officials announced that they had found seven pairs of spikes stuck in the mud.

Despite the cold and the mud, Skidmore and Mepham’s other state qualifier, sophomore Carissa Kahn, say they had a blast at the meet.

McQuillan said that Skidmore and Kahn are both great stories. Skidmore, he said, is known for his work ethic –– a runner who gives it his best every race, while remaining quiet and humble, despite his success. He started running varsity cross-country as a freshman and has twice earned All-County accolades, in addition to qualifying twice for the state championship. (Only the top team of seven and the next five finishers at the state-qualifying meet make states.)

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