Sports
Boys Cross-Country Wins Counties, Girls Take Second
With stellar performances at the meet, Garden City's boys and girls cross-country teams finished off a magical season.
This year’s boys cross-country team accomplished something on Saturday that no Garden City boys team has done since 1960 – they won a Nassau County cross country championship.
Led by Andrew Morra’s personal best time of 16:45.0 the Trojan runners not only claimed the county championship but they also qualified for the NY State Class B meet in Verona, NY to represent Section VIII.
For the girls it was a great finish for a team better known for competing on the oval track. And although they finished second to national powerhouse North Shore, the meet put Garden City on everyone's radar as a team to watch for years to come.
Find out what's happening in Garden Cityfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
Sisters Jennifer and Stephanie Gerland, a freshman and eighth grader respectively, led the girls with new personal best times and qualified as individual runners at Saturday’s New York State championship meet.
Boys coach Bob Busch has been pleased with his team’s development all year, a plan that has run accordingly from the first day of training this summer. The basic premise of that plan was ensuring continuous improvement. Days before the meet he commented, “The boys are capable of putting together something really special at counties, but it will take a strong race from top to bottom.”
Find out what's happening in Garden Cityfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
His words couldn't have been more true. All seven runners produced extraordinary results at Saturday's meet that catapulted the Trojans to their first championship in more than 50 years. Taking the trip to states along with Morra to represent Garden City are Neil Quigley (17:25), Steven Bradley (17:36.1), Mark DeSantis (17:36.6), Dan Finnegan (17:38.8), Oliver Weber (18:07) and Tim Feyrer (19:29.9).
The second place finish for the girls squad was their best finish in several years with Stephanie running the 5k course in 18:39.3, giving her the second best time ever for a Garden City runner at Bethpage. Right behind her on the school leaderboard in the number three spot is older sister Jennifer with a time of 18:46.2 to qualify for Verona. Helping the Trojans to the overall Class B second place finish was Laurel Fisher (19:50.8), Emma Gallagher (20:08.9), Sarah Rubino (20:51.8), Jackie O’Hare (22:15.9) and Katie O’Neill (23:00.1).
The boys and girls will board the Nassau County bus headed to Verona, NY Friday morning to take on the best of the best in the New York State championships.
