Archive: Sports

Last week, winter varsity sports seasons officially began -- but Mikaela Garcia was still hard at work preparing for one final cross country meet with several of her teammates by her side. For the second consecutive year, Garcia made the trip to the NYSPHSAA Championships, representing Lansing and Section IV after her third place finish at the Section IV Championships the week prior. In her first appearance at the state meet in 2015, Garcia finished 69th overall. This year, she finished in 32nd place with a new personal record of 20:21.4. With the entire girls team cheering her on at the Chenango Valley State Park course, the 2016 Lansing cross country season came to a close and the teams have their sights set on 2017 already.

The athletes started their season by hosting the Lansing Lighthouse 5K, an event that attracted over 200 runners with an anticipated future race date of August 19, 2017. The teams also hosted a youth cross country race on their new home course which debuted this year thanks to partnerships with the Lansing Recreation Department and the Lansing Pathways Committee. The team extended special thanks to Ian Golden for his help in designing the course as well as to Finger Lakes Running and Triathlon Company for the Pair Up shoe partnership.

On the boys varsity team, every single athlete ran to a new personal best time over the course of the season. Highlights of the boys season included their win at Whitey Point, improving to a 19th place finish at the McQuaid Invitational (up from 34th in the previous year), and finishing 6th at the Section IV Class C Championships.

The girls varsity team placed third at several invitational meets this year including the Owego Invitational and Marathon Invitational, improving their placing from previous years consistently. At the McQuaid Invitation, the girls placed 8th, up from 23rd place the previous year. Winning at the lone home meet of the year as well as at Moravia and Whitney Point, the team went on to take second place at the IAC Division II Championships and third at the IAC Championships. Their final team competition ended with a runner-up finish to Newark Valley at the Section IV Class C Championships.

The varsity cross country teams and their families gathered on Thursday, November 10, to celebrate a season filled with successes and signs of growth for the program. Coaches Becca Lovenheim and Christine Eisenhut congratulated the teams on their collective and individual accomplishments and awarded the following honors:

Boys Coaches' Award: David Pollack '18
Boys Most Valuable Player: Liam Hulsebosch '18
Boys Most Improved Player: Sean Ross '19

Girls Coaches' Award: Sam Mauser '17
Girls Most Valuable Player: Mikaela Garcia '18
Girls Most Improved Player: Allison Keefe '19

Complete results of the NYSPHSAA Championships are available online.