X-C: Tuohy overall boys winner, young Westchester girls excel at muddy Brewster Bear

BREWSTER — Well before Scarsdale's Sydney Geringer lost her first shoe in the mud about 100 yards into her race, then maybe a mile-and-a-half later, lost her second, it was pretty clear the course records at the Brewster Bear Cross-Country Classic were not going to be in danger Sunday.

Saturday's rain, which led to Brewster postponing the Classic's 45th running to Sunday out of fear of possible flooding, left the 3.1-mile course wet and muddy.

But no one seemed upset.

Sunday presented an opportunity to compete in a season in which multiple meets had been lost to poor weather.

So, despite the 24-hour delay, 35 high schools sent athletes.

Ryan Tuohy was glad North Rockland was one.

The sophomore, running in only his fourth race of the season, captured the second of two varsity boys races and was also the overall winner.

Tuohy clocked 16:12.3 to beat his nearest competitor, Greenwich, Connecticut's Christian Zawislack, by 6.2 seconds.

Tuohy was part of a small lead pack that also included eventual third-place boys 2 race and overall third-place finisher Ryan Sykes of Horace Greeley and Tuohy's classmate, Claudel Chery, who finished fourth in boys 2 and fourth overall , running 16:30.9.

Tuohy, who, after a promising eighth-grade season, broke on the scene in a big way last year, beating runners in all size classes at the Section 1 Cross-Country Championships, made his move into the lead Sunday on a hill.

That wasn't a surprising choice.

"I love the hills," Tuohy explained, although acknowledging he was hurting a bit when making that move.

But slowing wasn't an option.

"I was panicked the wolves would catch me. I was the rabbit," Tuohy quipped.

A D-I commitment, then a gold medal

The overall fifth boys spot in a combined field of 200 finishers went to Hackley's Asher Beck, who won the first boys race in 16:36.1.

That capped a nice few days for Beck, who late last week verbally committed to run for Division I Dartmouth.

The race was big for Beck, who had been sidelined all fall, first with an Achilles problem, then a rolled ankle.

The clock might have indicated he cruised to a win but that was far fromtruth.

Beck, who normally runs 50-60 miles weekly but has been doing 10-30 while working toward his return, found himself "way back" early but told himself to relax as he pushed on.

By the firstdownhill, he closed the gap and on the second uphill, with only one runner ahead of him, he decided it was time to "pounce" and take the lead.

"This is nice to win," said Beck, whose season goal is to qualify for cross-country nationals after qualifying for and then competing in both indoor and outdoor track and field nationals as a junior.

John Jay-Cross River's Andy Condon (16:43.3) was second in the boys varsity 1 race and sixth overall.

Brewster's Liam Ford, who clocked 17:00.6, took third in the varsity 1 race and was 10th overall.

John Jay-CR, Ursuline, Pleasantville, Keio top girls eye long battle

Newington (Connecticut) senior Katherine Bohlke, who ran in the first of two girls races, won that race and the overall , 157-finisher girls title with a time of 18:39.4.

The next several overall finishers were all freshman or sophomores, meaning the next several years of girls cross-country could prove interesting.

John Jay-Cross River sophomore Sloan Wasserman, running her first season of cross-country after giving up high school soccer (she still plays club), crossed in 18:56.2 for second in the girls varsity 1 race and second overall.

Race 2 winner, Kyleigh O'Keefe, an Ursuline freshman, took the girls varsity 2 race in 19:34.4, which was third best overall.

Pleasantville sophomore Clara Shingler (19:46.4) was second in that race and fourth overall and Keio freshman Nana Tsunemi (19:57.5) was third in the girls 2 race and fifth overall.

Wasserman is aiming high in her first season of cross-country.

Noting switching sports was "pretty hard" but she loves both cross-country and her cross-country team, Wasserman said she's shooting for top-five finishes in all her races and hopes to qualify for the state championships.

While her finish would indicate she's on a path to do so, she wasn't entirely happy with it.

"I didn't know I had to go up (the main) hill two times, so I didn't time it right," Wasserman said, describing the course as "pretty tough."

For O'Keefe, who has run for Ursuline since seventh grade, Brewster marked her first major-meet cross-country victory.

Comparing her seventh-grade self to today's version, she said back then she had "no expectations and no idea what I was doing."

Sunday her strategy was to "just go out as fast as I can and try to push in the middle of the race," O'Keefe said, noting her season goal is to break 19 minutes and make states.

Tsunemi, who started doing triathlons in fourth grade in her native Japan, is in her first year of cross-country at her Japanese school, which is in Purchase.

But first year or not, Tsunemi, who said she thought her time was good but she wished she'd placed higher, has, like the other young top girl finishers, set her sights on making states.

Whether all go or not, Shingler is enthusiastic about the future.

Shingler, who, despite the mud, bested her time and finish from what had been a "breakout" race for her at last year's Bear, was happy to have O'Keefe in front of her.

"She was pushing me," Shingler said, describing seeing O'Keefe ahead as "very motivating."

And she's also enthused by the prospect of facing her and Sunday's other young top finishers for years to come.

"It's very exciting," she said.

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Team winners

With 13 teams scoring in the boys varsity 1 race, the team title went to Hackley with 66 points. The rest of the top five included Brewster (78 points), James O'Neill (119), Warwick Valley (121) and John Jay-CR (126).

North Rockland, with 40 points, was the boys race 2 team winner.

In addition to Tuohy, the Red Raiders had three runners in the top 10. Claudel Chery was fourth (16:30.9), Austin Curry ninth (17:08.8) and Devin Piccone (17:13.7) was 10th.

Greenwich (69 points) was second in boys race 2. Connecticut's Haddam-Killingworth (80) and Monroe-Woodbury (95). were third and fourth, respectively, and Our Lady of Lourdes (151) edged Horace Greeley (157) for fifth.

Only five teams scored in the girls varsity 1 race. James O'Neill, with 35 points, edged Hackley (38) for the team title. John Jay-CR (79), Pelham (87) and Brewster (114) finished out the top five.

O'Neill's top runner was Erin Smith (20:53.5), who finished fifth. Teammate Tessa Hendrickson also crossed in the top 10, finishing seventh (21:44.9).

Six teams scored in the second girls race, the top three little more than a hair from each other.

Haddam-Killingworth, with 55 points, won the crown. .Scarsdale (57) was second, Pleasantville (59) third, Ursuline (73) fourth and Lourdes (136) was fifth.

Haddam-Killingworth's two top-10 runners were Charlotte Behnke (fifth place, 20:30.4) and Grace Mitchell (eighth, 20:53.3).

Geringer (23:43.8) was the seventh and final Scarsdale's girls finisher. She was a few minutes behind her team's top performers, Rachel Rakower (fourth in varsity 2, 20:17.3) and Julie Scheffler (sixth, 20: 41.7). But her shoeless run, which placed her32nd out of 56 girls who finished in race 2, appeared to be the talk of the team's post-race huddle.

Standing, holding one mud-caked running shoe, Geringer, who noted she never considered stopping after losing either shoe, lamented failing to re-tie/re-tighten her double-knotted shoe laces prior to the opening gun.

Her dad, John, however, wasn't upset. He was mostly relieved and maybe a tad amused.

Sydney had a hip injury last year, so, not noticing she was minus one shoe early in the race, he assumed the worst when spotting her running awkwardly over a concrete section of the course.

"I thought, 'Oh, no.' I thought she was injured again," he said, smiling before his daughter went in search of that one still-missing shoe.

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: X-C: Tuohy wins Brewster Bear boys title, Wasserman, O'Keefe top girls