MAHOPAC, N.Y—The Mahopac cross-country teams fought through some adversity to deliver a strong showing at the Admiral Harrier Invitational on Sept. 27 at the Milton Sports Dome. The girls finished second in the large-school division, while the boys featured several standout performances.
The girls were led by Kira Waring, Olivia Spinella, Evangelina Doupis, Summer McDermott and Aurelia Moser to take second place despite the absence of some key performers.
“The team has been battling a lot of sickness over the last week and we were missing Daniella Marks, who is a consistent varsity contributor,” Coach Kelley Posch said. “But the other girls stepped up in her absence and got the job done. I am especially impressed with Aurelia, who made up a lot of ground in the second half of the race to help our team score. The girls had a lot of great competition at this meet with teams from all over Section 1, and they will take that experience into the second half of the season as we head to championship meets. We are looking forward to having some time to get everyone healthy again and gear up for the second half of the season.”
Posch said the boys are on an upward trajectory and “continue to work on putting the pieces together as a team.”
Like the girls, the boys team was somewhat shorthanded due to “typical fall illness,” Posch said.
“We would rather it happen now than in the coming weeks, so it is what it is,” the coach said. “Thomas Baron was our first runner, improving greatly on his time from last season. Kelvin Cabrera is getting closer to his old form each week, coming back from nursing an injury.”
The meet also served as a rite of passage for some of the team’s newer runners.
“This was the first 5K for a lot of our freshmen, and it was encouraging to see Aiden Dicob near the top of our team’s list of times,” Posch said. “We know Aiden can make a positive impact on our team’s score, and with the confidence of competition each week we expect him to get better and better. Cooper Grimm set a great example for Aiden, finishing just before him. We missed Cooper last week at Pawling and were glad to have him back this week.”
After some time off, Mahopac is next in action at the league championships at North Salem High School on Thursday, Oct. 9.
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