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KK and Mike -- Head to State Cross Country Championship.
Posted on Friday, November 03 @ 23:13:51 EST by jfbailey
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WPCNR PRESS BOX. By Tim Sheehan. November 2, 2006 UPDATED Nov 3, 2006 10 AM EST: The White Plains Cross Country team will send two athletes to the State Championship meet next Saturday in Orange County -- sophomore Mike Dapice will run in the Class AA boys race, while junior Kaylin (KK) Gilmartin-Donohue will run in the Class AA girls race.
White Plains "K.K." Gilmartin-Donahue after finishing first last week in the County Championship. She will be joined by Mike Dapice in the States both K.K. and Mike finished in the top 5 today in the Section I Championship.
Both Tiger harriers ran in Friday's Section I Qualifier meet at the Westchester Community College's 3.1 mile course, chock full of hills and trails, posting personal records in today's perfect running weather. Runners who finish in the top 5 finishers of their Class, not counting runners on the winning team (since the whole team goes to the meet), qualify to run in the State meet.
Last year, Tiger senior Jeff Bergman and sophomore KK Gilmartin-Donohue just missed making the cut at the Section I qualifier meet held at Bear Mountain, each finishing 6th. This year would be different for the top Tiger runners.
Running in today's 1 pm girls AA race, Suffern sensation Shelby Greany, as usual, surged to an early lead and the race was on for the next 5 spots, not counting the Carmel runners, as they were expected to capture the team crown. But KK was not content to let the top 2 Carmel runners have second or third place overall, as she doggedly trailed Carmel's Kristin Reece and Catherine DeSarle for the first half of the race. KK then made her move early, passing the Carmel duo before the final pass in front of the crowd, and maintained her 2nd place overall position with just over a mile to go.
Out of the Woods, KK Takes Ovah!
Coming out of the woods with 400 meters to go, KK had opened up a 30 meter lead on DeSarle, as Reese uncharacteristically faded. KK then applied her patented kick to finish the race in a personal best 19:04, almost a minute faster than her time on the same course just two weeks earlier. KK's second place finish to Suffern's Greany earns her a berth to the State meet for the third time in her Tiger career.
Mike Moves Up!
Running in the 3:30 pm Boys Class AA race, sophomore Mike Dapice had a tougher road to hoe, as there were twice as many boys who finished within 20 seconds of each other when the same course was run two weeks earlier. In order to make the State meet, considerable improvement was required, as everyone was expected to run at least a little faster than they did two weeks ago.
North Rockland's AJ Savoia battled Arlington's Brendan Ceriello for the lead but a large pack of runners looking to place in the top 5 followed close behind, including two Tiger runners. As Arlington was favored to win the team title, anxious race watchers blocked out their gold and burgundy uniforms and began to count the remaining runners as the large trailing pack was starting to break up midway through the race.
First in the hunt for the State slots was N. Rockland's Savoia, followed by Scarsdale's Julian Scheinbaum and Dave Carlin, Carmel's Luke Maher and Mike Cirroco of Mahopac in the fith (and last) slot for the State meet. Just behind Cirroco was WP's Dapice and after a 20 second gap was Tiger junior Andrew Gelston.
Mike Hangs On and Takes 5th at the Finish.
Sitting in 8th place overall and in 6th place for the State meet slot, Dapice was advised of his precarious position with a little over a mile to go, and urged to make a move. Dapice then turned on the afterburners and with a half mile to go, he had passed Cirroco to occupy the 5th slot as the runners headed back into the woods for the final push -- could he hold it?
A little over two minutes later, as the runners emerged from the woods for the last 400 meters, the positions of the first four runners remained unchanged. Having passed the Carmel runner in the woods, Dapice emerged in 6th place overall and in the 4th position for the State meet. Putting on a kick that would make Tiger teammate KK proud, Dapice knocked off a Carmel runner at the finish line, finishing 5th overall (and keeping his 4th place slot for the State meet intact) at 16:59, 32 seconds faster than he ran the course two weeks before.
Carmel's Zach Maher finished 6th and Tiger Andrew Gelston 7th.
Sadly, Andrew Gelston also ran faster (26 seconds) than he did two weeks ago, but he finished in seventh place for the State qualifiers.
All in all it was a great day for Tiger runners, many of whom posted personal records on the course in their last race of the Fall season. But two runners were even happier that their very successful season will continue for at least another week.
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