FM moves on to NTN
By Christopher Hunt
WAPPINGERS FALLS — They smiled and clapped. They did all the things they were supposed to. But Stotan, the track team representing Fayetteville-Manilus couldn’t help but give off an aura that they had been there before. The looks bordered stoic, not because this win didn’t matter but because a bigger one awaits.
“Team race,” FM coach Bill Aris said. “Stage Three.”
The first two stages were wins at the state meet and federation championship. The Nike Team Northeast Regional championships represented another step toward a repeating as national champions. Nationally top-ranked Fayetteville-Manilus rolled over the competition again at the New York Regional at Bowdoin Park in Wappingers Falls, N.Y., winning today with 40 points and advancing to the Nike Team Nationals Dec. 1 in Portland, Ore. Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake earned the other qualifying spot finishing second with 72 and Kinetic RC (Saratoga Springs) third with 83.
MacKenzie Carter of Stotan finished the 5-kilometer course in 18:51.1 for fourth place. Stoton went 4-5-6 and placed five in the top 14 places. Carter said despite their dominance and the urge to look ahead to the national meet, her team stays focused only on the race ahead.
“I think we get excited for every race,” the sophomore said. “Every week we focus on the race that day. … The process is the goal. We’re just excited about being here. We’re excited every race.”
Courtney Chapman placed fifth for Stotan (18:54.5), Hannah Luber sixth (18:59.5), Molly Malone 11th ((19:22.8) and Jocelyn Richards 14th (19:36.6). Just 69 seconds separated the team’s top seven.
Whenever someone asks Carter about performance or predictions she talks about potential. She avoided saying she expected to win in Oregon. She avoided saying her team was favored. “We want to reach our potential,” is what she said. With that said, her team has been ranked No. 1 in the country all season. Their potential is to win.
‘I hate to make a boxing analogy,” Aris said. “But it’s like a 15-round heavyweight fight. The rounds are all the invitationals. But the 15th round, that’s when the money is on the line.”
Sam Roecker of Burnt-Hills-Ballston Lake TC won the individual race in 18:18.5, the fastest time of the day. Rocker traded pole position back and forth with Hannah Davidson of Kinetic RC until just after the 2-mile marker when Rocker broke away.
“I just got to that point and thought, ‘I know I have more left in me than this,’” she said. 
Davidson tried to cover the surge but couldn’t hang on. She finished second in 18:29.4. The senior had an opportunity to compete at the FootLocker Northeast Regional, which was also today and likely would have advanced to the national meet in San Diego, Calif. but chose to compete with her team.
Burnt Hills, who ran Meghan Gregory for the first time in four weeks after suffering from mononucleosis, were about 30 points ahead of Kinetic at the 2-mile mark. Kinetic made ground over the last 1,000 meters but it wasn’t enough. Roecker had the chance to watch her teammates finish and try calculate the score herself. Even with Gregory back the team lost freshman Molly Pezzulo, their No. 2 runner most of the season, to a calf injury before the race. But Carter got to watch her team pull everything together.
“I saw the girls coming in and I just got really excited,” she said.
Wicked TC representing Lincoln-Sudbury High School (Sudbury, Mass.) won the Nike Northeast Regional today with 69 points. Hunterdon Hawks TC (Voorhees) finished second with 73 and Hanover RC (Hanover Park High, N.J.) third with 83.
The race was close enough that no one knew the outcome at the conclusion of the race and meet officials held out until the awards ceremony to reveal the winner. The top four teams were announced backwards while the teams waited like contestants in a beauty pageant. So when fourth, third and second were called, Wicked TC knew they had won.
“I was shocked,” said Dana Jamieson said. “I didn’t even know what was going on. Then I saw everyone jumping around saying that we won and it hit me.”
Jamieson knew her team, ranked 18th in the country, was projected to finished third in the race. No. 4 Hanover and No. 5 Voorhees (Hunderdon Hawks TC) were expected to finish first and second.
“I feel like a lot of people don’t know who we are,” Jamieson said. “We’ve been through so much as a team this year and we really pulled together.”
Reach Christopher Hunt at chunt@armorytrack.com.
ALL PHOTOS BY TIM FULTON