By Frank Rizzo
BEAR MOUNTAIN — November 10, 2000 – Something old and something new was on the menu at last Friday’s Section IX cross country championships at Bear Mountain.
Heather Iatauro of Tri-Valley and the Tri-Valley boys repeated as Class D champs.
The Tri-Valley girls didn’t — but that was not a surprise.
T-V’s Steve Creek won his first Class D championship, and so did Sullivan West’s (SW) Jamie Clifford in the girls Class C race.
The SW boys also won their second straight Class C title.
No Competition
For Iatauro, it was her second straight D title and third overall (C and D were combined prior to 1999) and she lowered her Class D record from 18:35 to 18:26. However, lack of competition — she won by a full minute — made the afternoon less than perfect.
“It’s no fun running alone,” said Iatauro, a freshman. “I liked having Michelle (Wale, of Pine Bush) push me last week.”
Wale had beaten Iatauro 17:44.2 to 18:04.9 the Friday before at the Orange County Interscholastic Athletic Association (OCIAA) championship. Heather’s time was a freshman school record at the OCIAAs.
“I didn’t expect to beat [Michelle],” Iatauro said. “She has four years on me and more strength.”
Added Heather’s mom/coach Missy: “Michelle stopped growing.”
Heather said she had suffered from growth pains this year, especially in the knee area.
The Lady Bears placed third in the team contest as Rhinebeck won its first title.
“We knew Rhinebeck was the team to beat. We won our division (OCIAA Division IV), which was our goal,” said Missy Iatauro.
Rhinebeck coach Pam Dezago said that the T-V girls’ program “was one of our inspirations. It’s got a great tradition. But we got tired of them winning every year.”
Boys’ champ Steve Creek said he preferred the race to the OCIAA meet the week before, which had all the boys in the league running at once.
“I don’t like starting with so many people,” he said. “The conditions were great today. They can’t get better than this.”
First, But Not Last?
Sullivan West eighth-grader Jamie Clifford won her first sectional race in easy fashion, beating Erica Angell of Spackenkill by nearly 21 seconds.
Clifford began pulling away on the steep hill which is the hallmark of the course.
The Sullivan West boys achieved a 40-second split to win the title. It was slightly off from the week before at the OCIAA meet, where 27 seconds separated its top five runners.
Ian Parnett led the Bulldogs with a fourth-place finish in 16:50.46.
Giving Blood and More
Erin Garry was the lone runner for Monticello in the girls’ B race, finishing 18th with a 20:22 clocking. Nicole Whalen of Warwick led her team to the title with a winning time of 18:22.
The Monticello boys placed eighth, led by Ross Feller’s 27th place time of 17:53.98.
Ed Motl has been Monticello’s leading runner for much of this year, but a selfless decision made earlier this school year has cost him.
“There was a blood drive at the school, and I decided to do it,” Motl related. “I didn’t think about it at all, because the sign-up was so far in advance.”
But it turned out that the drive was the day before the OCIAA meet, and Motl, after giving a pint, ran subpar races both there and at the section meet.
“It’s a good deed, but not before a race,” Motl observed.