Cross Country Off to Terrific Start

For the boys team it was all about putting coach Bob Busch’s plan into action and continuing their "race over race" improvement as every member of the squad ran to a personal best at Bethpage State Park in the first meet and then came back to improve on their times at the second meet.

The team moved to a perfect 4-0 start by defeating New Hyde Park and Calhoun in the first meet and then followed that up with victories over Long Beach and Herricks. The 4-0 start is the team’s best in recent years. The win against Calhoun, the first win over them in eight years, was decided by a tie breaker, going down to the sixth man. Excellent times and finishes were turned in by Andrew Morra, Dan Finnegan, Neil Quigley, Mark DeSantis, Tim Feyrer and senior Stephen Bradley. 

Morra followed up his initial conference run with an eleventh place finish at the Suffolk Coaches meet Saturday with a time of 18:04 for the 5K event. The boys team finished fourth out of 26 teams, completing the Sunken Meadow course.

On the girls side, Stephanie and Jennifer Gerland led the Garden City assault on the field with Trojan runners capturing the top seven spots in their conference against New Hyde Park and Calhoun. The second meet went just as well with dominating wins over Long Beach and Herricks, bringing the girls overall record to 4-0.  

Coach Charley Cuzzo and the Garden City girls are looking to make an impact on the cross country season this year for the first time in the recent past. Cuzzo is looking for his young team to come off the start line fast and finish even stronger. In addition to the Gerland sisters, the girls that posted new personal best times were Emma Gallagher, Katie O’Neil, Sarah Rubino and Laurel Fisher.

The girls look forward to the challenge of running in the St. Anthony’s Invitational meet at Sunken Meadow Park Saturday and then return to conference action on Tuesday.