The Oneida Daily Dispatch (Oneida, NY)
Column: This race just got that much important
How the morning before the New York State Cross Country Championship started out.
This was how the morning before the New York State Cross Country Championship started out and by the time the race ended Camden girls cross country side would have a runner crowned as state champion, claim the Class C team state title, and be a part of the Sectional Merge championship team.
Every coach, athlete, teacher, parent, and person with a pulse knows that the state championship is the big event for just about every high school student athlete to try to achieve. However, “how big” can sometimes be lost someplace, or maybe missed completely.
Fortunately, on the morning of Friday, Nov. 15, the Blue Devils were meeting at “The Station” for some breakfast before the trip up to Plattsburgh, and the coaches received a phone call. They were instructed to bring the girls back to the high school for a proper send off. They were met by around 200 students lining the hallway wishing them the best of luck and cheering them on. When they got back to the diner, one of the girls made the comment, “This race just got that much more important.”
However, the importance grew over the breakfast as many patrons, whom none of the girls knew, took time to wish them the best of luck and then one very nice lady generously paid for the girls’ breakfast. To say the team was overwhelmed by the kind gesture would be an understatement, but to say that this gesture cemented how important this race was is certain.
Once in Plattsburgh, while at the course to give it a once over preview, there were only negative comments being made by other coaches and athletes about the course conditions and the weather. Camden girls did not pay too much heed to this as they practice in the cold, in the wet, in the mud, and at times in the snow and on ice – so it was just like any other day and any other course condition they had run
on. When picking up the packets with bib numbers and materials Camden senior Morgan Lucason was notified the she was the Section III Sportsmanship Representative to the state meet – this was the first piece of good news for Camden to come. Race Day! Wake up Saturday, Nov. 16, have a light breakfast and get ready to race mentally and physically. With the cold weather, the warmup was a bit longer and more gradual, with some other pre-race routines mixed in as well – 70 minutes to be exact. While in the field house, it was becoming evident that Section 3 was taking it to the state in other races. On paper, the team from Greenwich was a 60-plus point favorite with all of the major running sites giving them the easy victory and pegging Camden for a second place finish, at best. In addition, Camden harrier Lizzy Lucason was predicted to finish fourth at best by most writers and website analysts. With the course conditions the way they were and our girls, battletested and race ready, we coaches, as well as the former coach, agreed that the new goal was not to fight for second but lay it all out there, roll the dice, and fight harder than ever for first. The course conditions made it as much about toughness as it did about ability and raw speed, and toughness is what the girls brought.
Out on the course, it looked like the Camden girls were unified as a team to leave it all out there with no doubt as to what could have been. They raced like never before and most other coaches were probably counting on them to fade back as the race progressed, but that did not happen! Instead, each runner kept eating up the competition, taking one place away from the rest of the field after another.
In the end, Camden’s Lizzy Lucason crossed the finish line first to take the state title, running her best race in years to do so. First piece of history in the books as the first female state champion from Camden in any sport.
Next! Every girl ran to a new personal best for the season and in many cases their careers to edge 60-plus point favorite Greenwich by a score of 75-77, and the next closest team was 27 points behind. Morgan Lucason was the next runner for Camden placing 22nd overall only two places from making the podium but 17 places ahead of her predicted finish. She was followed by teammates Haley Hinds (26th), Sydney Coleman (49th), Catherine Seidl (57th), Ivy Murphy (80th), and Kiera Burke (106th) who all lit it up and through a true team race were crowned state champions. This was the second piece of history as the first team to win a state title in Camden – ever!
The third piece of history was that Camden runners were part of the section vs. section championship team after Section 3 blew all of the other sections away when combining the best runners from team and individual place finish.
When the news came of the victory, the team of course was emotional – they had just pulled off the thought to be impossible feat against a perennial cross country powerhouse that has won many state championships. After many, many interviews and questions about how they did it, the team was finally able to go get some food. Dinner was as much of a team moment as the rest of the journey. Many war stories of the race were shared over some burgers, wings, and salads. Many laughs were had by all of the ladies present over dinner and discussions about the futures of the seniors and the goals of the underclassmen started over dinner and continued on the almost four hour drive home.
However, it did not end here. Upon entering Camden, the team was greeted by an escort by the Camden Fire and Rescue Service to the high school, where many people along Main Street and at the high school greeted Camden’s state champions. It did not go unnoticed that the play took an intermission to come out and join in the celebration before getting the show back on.
This is an experience that will never be forgotten by these young ladies. They will never forget the hard work, perseverance, new levels of pain that they were able to bring themselves to as well as the joy of success, support from friends, family, teachers, parents, and the community, accomplishing the impossible, sharing the moment as a team family over dinner for one last time, and knowing that they were able to maybe bring some of that joy and gratitude to those who have supported them in their school district and from afar.
Congratulations Girls! You have made us all proud!!!