Young runners Leoni Griffin and Kaleigh Higgins lead Shaker to Grout crown.
Griffin (7th grade) and Higgins (8th) lead the Blue Bison to girls’ title
The home stretch of the 80th annual Grout Invitational offered a glimpse into a very promising future for the Shaker girls’ cross country team and, at the same time, served as a continuation of an already-successful season for the young Blue Bison harriers.
A week after eighth-grader Kaleigh Higgins took top honors with seventhgrade teammate Leoni Griffin finishing second at the John Killian Invitational, the youngsters once again took center stage as the teammates dueled to the finish line in what turned into a match race to the finish line.
In the end, an explosive burst from the 11-year old Griffin was enough of a finishing kick to post the win in her first time running the 2.75-mile Central Park course Saturday with a time of 15 minutes, 56.74 seconds, with Higgins a close second in 16:00.04.
Griffin trailed Higgins as the pair neared the conclusion of the roadrace portion of the course before heading into the woods and coming down the final hill in the closing stages of the Division I race.
“I wanted to try to come in first. At the end of the race, I try to push it and I was able to do that,” Griffin said. “I started to get a cramp toward the end. I ran very fast today. I got my personal record. We came down the hill — normally I’m better going downhill — and I heard we had 800 meters left so I started sprinting.”
A week after leading Shaker to the title in the Killian Invy, the 13-year old Higgins was consoled by the fact that one of her teammates had the edge this week.
“The course was good, I liked it,” Higgins said. “I’d rather her get it than someone else.”
Shaker won the team title with a narrow win over Bethlehem.
T.J. Randall of Shaker pulled away from the pack in the boys’ Division II race, finishing in 14:07.54, to lead his team to the title.
The junior got off to a good start and, with the early pace to his liking, kicked into gear and pulled away when the rest of the lead pack could not answer his pace.
“I like the really big hills, especially at the end,” Randall said. “One of my strengths is definitely the hills. My plan was to stay with the leaders. Around the mile, I knew I could go faster.”
Isaac Menis of Schenectady was second, followed by Francisco Mendonca of Shaker.
Greenwich won the girls’ Division II race and was paced by a win from Nina Sgambelluri and a runner-up finish from Brynne Wright.
Sgambelluri crossed the line in 15:46.76 with Wright running 15:54.60, followed by Colonie senior Kathyrn Tenney and Teagan Wright of Greenwich.
Nick Garrison of Washingtonville won the boys’ Division I race with a time of 13:37.41.
Garrison’s win propelled the Wizards, who placed six runners in the top eight, to the win.
Freshman Madison Relyea of Mayfield took the lead of the Division C race and won for the second straight year with a time of 16:01.83.
Relyea was stalked throughout the race by Elaine Atanasova of team champion Duanesburg but never relinquished the lead.
Brandon Olden of North Warrenjohnsburg won the boys’ Division C race with Broadalbin-perth taking home the team title.