Cross Country: Briarcliff Team Best 'in the Last Decade'

’s cross country squad has six more meets, the most important of which are the League Championship (Oct. 12), the Westchester County Championship (Oct. 29), the Section 1 Championship (Nov. 4) and the state championship (Nov. 12), where the Bears hope to have qualifiers.

“My goals for the team are to improve on our performances from last year,” Coach Sean Ryan said. “Hopefully, this will result in better team placing and in improved team/individual times. Last year our boys team was second in our league, 16th in Westchester County and seventh in Section 1 Class C. Our girls team was third in our league and did not score in the other meets. We have extremely tough competition at all of these levels but we are running very well and will run strong.”

Briarcliff’s boys team finished the dual part of the season with a very strong 14-3 record with the girls finishing 5-7, an improvement over its 3-9 mark of a year ago.

“All but one of our girls losses were when we forfeited because we did not have a full team, so this record is better than it looks and gives us confidence for the championship races ahead,” Ryan said.

Briarcliff’s season highlights so far were at the Big Red Invitational in Somers where its boys were fourth, at the Bowdoin Classic in Wappingers Falls where the boys team finished 20th in an extremely competitive field and at Brewster where its boys placed sixth.

The Bears’ girls squad has only had a full team at two of its meets but when it did run with a full team, they did an outstanding job with a 5-1 record.

On an individual basis, junior Stephen Shine has proven he is one of the best runners in the area. Shine won at Big Red, was 22nd at the Bowdoin Classic (first among Section 1 finishers) and second at Brewster. Shine’s best race was Bowdoin where he ran that very challenging course in 17:11.

On the girls side eighth-grader Caroline Pennacchio has run extremely well in her first year running at the high school level. Pennacchio won the freshmen race at Big Red, was 46th in the varsity race at Bowdoin (fifth-place Section 1 finisher) and eighth at Brewster in that varsity race.

Pennacchio has made significant progress taking her best 5K time to 20:56 on the difficult Rockwood Hall course.

Other runners who have distinguished themselves with their best 5Ks are: Boys - Andrew Rice - Senior (19:06), Tyler Cottrell - Junior (19:43), AJ Omartian - Senior (19:42), Joseph Pennacchio - Sophomore (19:56), Sam Cohen - Junior (20:30) and Jacob Levine - Junior (20:32).

Briarcliff’s girls runners who have stood out are Blake Elwood - Freshman (23:17), Nicole Constantine - Senior (24:50) and Jessica Linde - Senior (24:45).

“This is the best team Briarcliff has had in the last decade,” Ryan said. “We have battled some illnesses that have taken key runners out of several races but we have stayed very healthy from a running perspective. I am very pleased by how hard our team has worked and, most importantly, how much they have improved. They are ready for the championship part of our season."