'This is real cross-country': Brewster, Ketcham excel in rain, mud at Pawling's Dan Purdy
PAWLING — A day before Pawling held its annual Dan Purdy Memorial Cross-Country Invitational, athletic directors throughout the area were scrambling to cancel and reschedule games due to the heavy rain that had brought widespread flooding.
The rain was expected to pause and restart Saturday morning. The concern, fueled by lingering road closures, rose to the level some Saturday events were also canceled, including two large cross-country meets, Fred Gressler in White Plains and the Pearl River Invitational in Milton.
But Pawling High School, which lost its meet last year to construction on its grounds, had no intention of canceling.
Athletic director John Bellucci explained Saturday would belong to “mudders and grinders.”
And that it did.
With nine schools participating, including a couple of cast-offs from canceled meets, runners slogged through the 3.1-mile course, sometimes taking unexpected mud baths.
Ketcham’s Nate Lutz fell more times than he could remember.
Westlake’s Emily Reommelt flashed a two-thumbs-up sign and a grin from a mud-splattered face after falling face-first twice.
Few seemed immune.
Brewster’s Liam Ford, the runner-up in the boys varsity race, was still smiling post-race in describing how he was laughing while running after seeing his cousin, Brewster assistant coach, Will Ford, slipping and falling on a hill.
His cousin, whose jeans were mud-caked waist to ankles in the back, had to later smile himself while laughing about his commitment being out in the elements and of going down right in front of Liam.
The younger Ford, who clocked 17:13.4, felt lucky to stay upright.
“I was trying to avoid puddles and big mud patches,” he said.
The winner, Connor Hitt, who finished in 16:21.2, was out in front early, so didn’t see multiple teammates go down.
“There were times I almost stumbled,” he said, noting he made sure he focused and didn’t “zone out.”
Hitt, a senior who’s currently undecided about where, but plans to run in college next year, shared the spotlight with teammate Abby Kowalczyk, who won the girls race.
The junior, who has been on varsity since eighth grade, enjoyed negotiating the course and said she felt comfortable throughout, “not straining or running hard.”
“I’m definitely not a mudder but it was definitely a fun experience. Very memorable, that’s what I’d call it,” said Kowalczyk, who said her strategy was to try to run on the highest ground.
She finished in 19:50.3.
Second place went to North Salem’s Isabella Fryer in 21:22.9.
The senior noted she suffered her first of two stress fractures a couple of years ago on the same course and Purdy was her first big meet back from a twisted ankle.
“I’m so happy to run. It was my first non-dual meet. I loved it,” Fryer said.
Brewster coach Joe Scelia was also happy. He expressed thanks to Pawling for allowing his team, which had been scheduled to run at Milton, to enter at the last minute.
And that certainly paid off.
Not only did Liam Ford win silver but Brewster won the boys team title with 41 points. Ketcham (56) was second and Our Lady of Lourdes (83) was third with seven boys teams scoring.
With only two girls teams scoring in a small field, Brewster, which had four girls in the top 10, also won the girls team title with 27 points, edging Lourdes, which had 30.
On the boys side, Brewster placed four runners in the top 10 out of a field of 109 finishers.
Matt Van Buskirk (17:35.5) was fourth, Rod Cassidy (17:49.4) fifth and Mark Fedio (17:55.9) was eighth. (Luke Mahoney, clocking 19:05.7, was the other Bear to score, finishing 25th. )
The rest of the boys top 10 included Mahopac’s Brandon Kumrow (third place, 17:22.5), Pawling’s Evan Shannon (sixth, 17:53), Putnam Valley’s Jon Duraes (seventh, 17:55.5), Ketcham’s Matt Kowalczyk (ninth, 17:56.2) and Ketcham’s Isaac Menjivar (10th, 17:56.3).
For the girls, who, running second, faced a sloppier course, Lourdes’ Grace Gilroy was third (22:17), Brewster’s Valentina Brenes (23.35.5) and Olivia Francis (23:39.6) were fourth and fifth, respectively, Pawling’s Joslyn Walsh (24:03.4) was sixth, Brewster’s Katie Meija-Flores (24:19.2) was seventh, Lourdes’ Alexandria North (24:21.1) took eighth, Brewster’s Michelle DiCarlo (24:22.2) was ninth and Lourdes Bethany Catalano (24:28.1) took the No. 10 spot.
Pawling didn’t win a team competition, but coach Adam Muroski was clearly pleased with the day — all aspects of it.
Asked whether cancelation was ever considered, he said, “We planned on pushing through no matter what.”
And the rain and slop, which clearly made things more interesting, also only made things better to him.
“To me, this is real cross-country,” Muroski concluded. “Adversity and mud is what makes this fun.”
Nancy Haggerty covers cross-country, track & field, field hockey, skiing, ice hockey, basketball, girls lacrosse and other sporting events for The Journal News/lohud. Follow her on Twitter at @HaggertyNancy.
This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: 'Real cross-country: Rain, mud can't slow Brewster, Ketcham in Pawling
