MAHOPAC, N. Y. — Mahopac’s cross country team rolled into the Milton Sports Dome for the North County Championships with some of its top runners AWOL (albeit for the good reason of having to take their PSATs), so one could be forgiven for expecting little in return for the journey
Instead, they came home with a spectacular result. The girls secured second place—something Mahopac hadn’t achieved for over two decades—while two of the undermanned boys squad set personal bests.
On the girl’s side, coach Kelley Posch said the second place was meaningful on several levels.
“What made it even more special is that we were missing our top, second, and third runners because they were taking the PSATs,” coach Kelley Posch said. “So everybody really had to step up—and they did just that.”
Posch said Kira Waring made an aggressive start to hold third place for the entire race, but she wasn’t alone.
“Freshman Danielle Marks had her best race of the season, which made a huge impact for us today,” Posch said. “Marley Melchner, Danna Yari, and Sabrina Kenneally had big days too, rounding out our scoring five. What they did [at the event] was truly impressive and I could not be more proud of them.”
The PSATs took an even bigger toll on the boys’ side, which was heavily undermanned at the event.
“[The test] took a lot of our boys out of the race, unfortunately so we only had five on the line,” said Posch, who believes a full boys squad would have placed “significantly higher” than the eighth place it earned in Milton.
Nevertheless, she said the boys had “some great performances”—most notably Brandon Kumrow’s second place (16:12.3) and “a huge personal record” by junior captain Kelvin Cabrera (17:46.6).
“Brandon made a strong move in the last half mile to earn his finish and it was a great performance,” Posch said. “He and Kelvin truly competed today and that courage earned them personal records.”
The team’s final race of the season is on Saturday, Nov. 9 at the Section 1 Championships at Bowdoin Park in Wappingers Falls.
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