State Federation cross-country: Furman boys winner, Green 3rd, Mayclim 5th, Wasserman 6th
WAPPINGERS FALLS — A year ago, Tri-Valley's Van Furman had a strong showing at the state Federation cross-country championships.
The first sophomore to cross the finish on the hilly Bowdoin Park course, he was 31st out of nearly 275 of the state's top male runners from all sizes of public and private schools.
But coming off last week's state public Class D (small-school) championship win, the second overall finisher in Section 9's championship and first among the section's small-school runners, proved Saturday he can beat anyone from any size school.
With 287 boys finishing, the junior clocked 16 minutes, 07.6 seconds over the 3.1-mile course, knocking just under 40 seconds off his 2022 time to win the vaunted Fed title.
Furman appeared at a loss to explain his improvement, smiling while suggesting it might be attributed to the several inches of height he has gained in the past year to bring himself to about 6-foot-1.
Citing the field's large size, he said, "My strategy was to out fast" and not get boxed in.
He did that but found himself losing ground and back in second during a big hill climb.
"On the hill, I just died," he said.
But Furman won the race to the bottom of the hill and was in control from there.
"I don't know if it was adrenaline," he said of his surge and ensuing win.
"I didn't think I was going to win. Everything went as I wished — better, actually," he added.
Despite graduating its top three 2022 finishers, Section 9's Monroe-Woodbury repeated as boys team champion in a field of 31 squads. North Rockland was eighth and Arlington was ninth.
In addition to Furman, boys and girls also excelled individually.
Despite running sick, Arlington's Ethan Green finished in 16:18.9 for third in the boys race.
Lakeland/Panas senior Bobby Mayclim, who has been on fire the last few weeks, finished fifth in 16:22.5.
Monroe-Woodbury's Oliver Jibb was sixth (16:44.3) and his teammate, Shane Golio, was ninth (16:27).
With top-40 finishers receiving medals, North Rockland's Claudel Chery, who said he ran well due to "hydration, happiness and joy," was 12th (16:36.9). Monroe-Woodbury's Gavin Catherwood (16:40.4) was 20th and Horace Greeley's Ryan Sykes (16:42.7) was 22nd.
Wasserman
The girls individual championship went to William Floyd's Zariel Macchia in 17:59.4.
But locals had plenty of reason to be happy, starting with John Jay-Cross River's Sloan Wasserman.
The sophomore and first-year cross-country runner had two goals entering Saturday's race: She wanted to break 19 minutes and wanted to finish top-10.
She did both with room to spare.
Despite having uncharacteristic struggles on hills, Wasserman clocked 18:56.4 for sixth place out of 287 finishers.
"I'm so excited," she said. "I gave all I had. I can't believe I broke 19."
Ketcham's Abby Kowalczyk also finished in the top 10 with her 19:03.8, good for eighth place.
Hastings' Caitlin Thomas (19:10.7), like Green, running sick, was 13th but said, "It's fun. I did it. I'm happy."
From Section 9, Van Furman's freshman sister, Anna, took 20th in 19:32.2. Cornwall's Sophia Semo was 27th, finishing in 19:44.2.
North Rockland's Gaby Castro was close behind in 28th in 19:45.5, a personal best time for her at Bowdoin. She did that despite falling at the beginning of the race.
Girls teams
Saratoga Springs won the girls team title. Cornwall finished third in the 30-team field behind Bethlehem.
Tappan Zee, led by Bridget Dunn's 32nd-place (19:38.9), was eighth. Arlington, whose top runner was Bailey Guckian (74th, 20:24.5) was 13th.
And Somers, led by Mia Sandolo (62nd, 20:15.2) was 14th.
More reactions
It might be decades later, but Monroe-Woodbury head coach Matt Hemmer is certainly finding his team's back-to-back wins satisfying after coming up short while running for Monroe-Woodbury himself in 1995.
His squad was favored to win the Fed but came in second.
"I can't tell you how many times I hear how we were supposed to have won. This more than makes up for it," he said.
Another happy guy was Mayclim, the boys Westchester County champion, who was ninth in Class A at the state public school championships.
He has battled injury and illness since last year and wanted a special memory to cap what has turned into a pretty special season — a season in which he said he gave everything he had every race.
"I wanted to look back at the season and smile," he said, explaining he was doing just that.
He plans to run at the Nike Cross nationals qualifier at Bowdoin next Saturday, as does Green, who said simply, "Next time. That's the plan," after not running as well as he'd hoped.
Jibb, who finished sixth despite being boxed in at one point, also plans to run at Nike.
But Saturday, his focus was more on his squad's win.
"This feels better (than last year). We thought this would be a rebuilding year," he said.
Dunn was also team-focused, although bettering her best time at Bowdoin by about a second.
Of what she thought at the beginning of the season and how it played out, the Tappan Zee sophomore said, "I probably wouldn't believe it (if told back then what would occur). To be here with all my friends. Unreal," she said.
Castro of North Rockland, who, as she did at the state public-school championships, recorded the top time by a girl from a Rockland County team, called the race "very satisfying" and credited her finish to running the course's hills well. She's a fan of hills because they make races "more interesting," she said.
She's also a fan of other runners and was happy many she knows also fared well.
"I'm very happy with the turnout. I saw a lot of girls do very well. That's nice to see," she said.
State X-C: Hastings' Thomas, JJ-CR's Wasserman, Arlington's Green lead area medal haul
Other top-40 medalists
Ketcham's Connor Hitt ran 16:51.3 for 31st in the boys race, Mount Academy's Donovan Baird ran 16:52.5 for 34th and Nanuet's Shane Ethakkan clocked 16:53.6 for 35th.
Albertus Magnus's Jake Harold missed medaling by less than two seconds, finishing 41st in 16:57.7.
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: High school cross-country: Tri-Valley's Furman boys champ in NY Fed X-C
