Sullivan County Democrat
Callicoon, New York
March 1, 2013 Issue
National Award-winning, Family-run Newspaper
Established 1891
www.sc-democrat.com
info@sc-democrat.com
news | sports | obituaries | archives | classifieds | subscribe | NEW! buy photos | links | contact | tv listings | lottery
Weather

WXPort

Community

Sullivan County Democrat

Promote Your Page Too

"The Wild Gardener"
Peter Loewer's Weekly
Column in the Democrat

"The Mouth That Roars"
Bill Liblick's Weekly
Column in the Democrat

"Inside Out"
Jeanne Sager's Weekly
Column in the Democrat

"Give Us Paws"
Ruth Huggler's Weekly
Column in the Democrat

"Retrospect"
John Conway's Look Back at the History of Sullivan County

Sullivan Renaissance

Sullivan County Chamber
Of Commerce & Industry

Sullivan County
Visitor's Association

Sullivan County
Government Center

Sullivan County
Partnership for
Economic Development

Please visit our
Community Links
section for other
Sullivan County
Organizations

 
 

Jon Dinan | Democrat

Among the 14 Sullivan County cross country runners advancing to Saturday's state championship near Buffalo are: (from left) Monticello's Camryn Johnson, Sullivan West's Dani Myers, Eldred's Alex Campanella (the Class D individual champion), Sullivan West's Kelsey Dutton and Reed Scott.

Campanella, T-V girls lead 14 local runners to state meet

Story by Jon Dinan
SULLIVAN COUNTY — The Section IX cross country championship meet at Bear Mountain State Park was an emotional event for many Sullivan County runners. The Tri-Valley girls’ team gave their soon-to-be retired coach Missy Iatauro a bittersweet send-off as they finished first as a team in their Class C meet.
Sullivan West senior Dani Myers and Eldred seventh grader Kayla Maas, who both finished fifth in their respective races, advancing to Saturday’s state meet near Buffalo, were tearful because the three-mile trek was many of their teammates’ last high school cross country competiton.
“I just kept thinking I don’t want to make it my last race ever. I want to go longer with my girls,” said Myers as she fought back tears. I don’t want to leave them. All these girls worked so hard, and I wanted them to see what it can bring them.”
“I pushed myself really hard today because I wanted this race, “said an emotional Maas. “It means a lot to my teammates and they all wanted it too. Two of them are really good but they’re seniors so they can’t race again. I want to congratulate them for working so hard. They did great throughout the entire season.”
Eldred senior Alex Campanella had the fourth fastest time out of all runners on the day and was Sullivan County’s only individual first place finisher, claiming the top spot in his Class D race despite a number of setbacks to his training over the past year. Campanella fractured his left ankle during his outdoor track season last spring. This fall he contracted mono and suffered the loss of his grandmother.
“This season actually hasn’t been exactly what I wanted but I had a good day today,” said Campanella, who will likely run for DePaul University next year. “I had to run this course three times before I won on it and I can use any excuse in the world like I have mono, or I had a stress fracture, or my grandma died whatever, but it doesn’t really change the fact that I didn’t run the way I should have all season.
“It’s nice to know that I can still really race, not just run fast, but really race. I had a nasty cramp the whole time which was kind of worrying me, but it’s not an excuse to let up and there’s never an excuse to run like I did two weeks ago at the county [when he finished eighth]. I just ran miserable. My head wasn’t in it, and I wasn’t where I needed to be, but I’m excited to go to states and regionals and maybe do something big,” he added.
Campanella was not the only athlete running with discomfort. After a Sullivan West runner forgot his uniform the enitre boys’ team was forced to squeeze into the uniforms of their female counterparts for their Class C race.
“It was kind of hard running because the girls’ uniform was constantly putting pressure on my chest.” said Sullivan West senior Reed Scott.
Scott still fared well despite his restrictive athletic wear. He was the fastest Sullivan County finisher, and fourth overall in his class C competition, advancing to the state meet Saturday at Elma Meadows Golf Course near Buffalo.
All members of the first place team in each class as well as the top five other finishers qualified for the state meet. For Sullivan County, the qualifiers were: (girls’) the Tri-Valley team of Autumn Bender, Brittany Pennell, Danielle Graham, Sabrena Smith, Brooke Gillette, Ali Reynolds, Keira McHugh; Sullivan West’s Dani Myers and Kelsey Dutton; Eldred’s Kayla Maas. Campanella, teammate David Powers and Scott were the only boys moving on.
Not as lucky was Monticello’s top runner, junior, Joe Klein who admitted to feeling nauseous before the race and completed the course 36 seconds slower than he did just ten days earlier.

Copyright © 1999-2013 Catskill-Delaware Publications.
The information you receive online from the Sullivan County Democrat Online Edition is protected by the copyright laws of the United States. Content contained within this website is for the sole and exclusive use of Catskill-Delaware Publications. Please read our user agreement and our use information
privacy statement.
Internet Services provided by Time Warner, Site Design by Green Enterprises

top of page       top of page