Strong finish for Cyclones
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Senior Jesse Weiss helped the Cyclones place second in the Conference III meet.
Claudio Papapietro/Herald
A young South Side girls’ cross-country team enjoyed a 9-4 regular season and placed a respectable fifth in the Conference III championships, setting the tone for what could be a big year in 2010.
Senior Claudia Brady paced the Lady Cyclones in the conference and county races and set a new personal best in her final race on Nov. 7 at Bethpage State Park. After finishing sixth in the conference the previous Saturday with a time of 21-minutes, 44.9-seconds over the 5K course, she crossed the line in 21:19.3 at the county race. “For her to cut 25 seconds in a week’s time was great,” coach Chris Webster said of Brady, who picked up All-Conference honors. “She had a nice year. She won the majority of dual meets, including some we didn’t win as a team.”
South Side had four All-Division runners: juniors Jamie Matos and Caitlin Rudolph, sophomore Jackie Maughan and freshman Alannah O’Rourke. Maughan was the team’s second finisher in the conference meet, completing the course in 23:19.7. O’Rourke followed in 23:34.3, then Rudolph (24:26.3) and sophomore Hannah Slavin (25:03.5). Another sophomore, Jasmine Ruiz, ran only in the county race was was the team’s third finisher behind Brady and Maughan. Other key contributors were senior Victoria Leistman, a captain along with Brady, and junior Colleen Culkin.
On the boys’ side, senior Kyle O’Neil capped a four-year varsity career by breaking the 18-minute mark at the county meet. The All-Conference performer finished in 17:57.0, an improvement of 11 seconds from the Conference III race that saw him finish 12th-overall. “He led us all season” Webster said.
Junior Randy Williams was the team’s biggest surprise according to Webster. Williams and seniors Jeremy Pagirsky and Jesse Weiss trained hard all summer and finished consecutively in the conference race, with Pagirsky 15th in 18:24.2, Williams 16th in 18:24.5 and Weiss 17th in 18:31.2. Pagirsky was All-Conference after an injury plagued 2008 campaign, and Williams came back with an 18:13.2 in the county meet.
The Cyclones went 7-6 in league meets and finished second in the conference behind powerful Manhasset. Also contributing were sophomore Sean Culkin, who was All-Division, and seniors Ben Kutner and Jeff Slavin. “The boys ran well,” Webster said. “They were up against stiff competition in Manhasset.”
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