By Rob Potter
WAPPINGERS FALLS — November 20, 2001 – Tri-Valley’s Heather Iatauro improved on her finish of a year ago and was among the top 20 runners at Saturday’s New York State Federation cross country meet.
Iatauro, a sophomore, finished the 3.1 mile course at Bowdoin Park in a time of 19:07. That was good enough for 17th place in the girls’ race at the meet, which included scholastic runners from New York State’s public schools, private and parochial schools and New York City’s Public School Athletic League (PSAL).
Over 200 runners participated in the meet.
This is the third time Iatauro, who was the only Sullivan County runner qualified for the meet, has run in the Federation meet. As an eighth-grader, she finished 27th with a time of 19:33. Last year, she ran the course in 19:16, good enough for 21st place.
Iatauro’s time was the best among the Section IX runners in the girls’ race. (Unlike the Section IX championship event, the Federation meet is divided by sex and not class. Therefore, Iatauro was running against girls from Classes A, B, C and D.)
The girls’ race was won by Molly Huddle, who posted a time of 18:02. Huddle is a student at Elmira Notre Dame, a Section IV school.
Iatauro finished fifth with a time of 19:30 at the state Class D meet, which was held at Elma Meadows on November 10.