GUILDERLAND — For the first time in a long time, rain did not fall at the Guilderland Cross-Country Invitational. In fact, the course at Tawasentha Park could not have been much better.
"There was soft ground," Guilderland boys’ coach and race coordinator Bob Oates said. "The low light was helping cars get out of the mud. The soft course didn’t affect any times. Thirty-two out of my 45 runners had their best times ever."

Rain during most of the week softened the course, but the skies remained blue on Saturday.
"I was hoping for a drying day," Oates said. "Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday morning it rained. We got about seven hours of drying time but it rained again that night. I had to go out the next morning and put down some wood chips that prevented it from being slick. There was a little bit of mud."

The large-school varsity boys’ race was won by Danbury High School of Connecticut. Burnt Hills won the girls’ varsity team event.
"It was great," Oates said. "Danbury came from Connecticut and it made the boys’ side strong. The Burnt Hills girls won and did a great job. Cooperstown came for the first time and won the small-school race. It was very competitive. Berne-Knox was right up there. We had a lot of schools come out for the first time."

Rhodes-Devey shatters record

The individual race was won by Guilderland’s Brian Rhodes-Devey. The senior running sensation broke his own course record at Tawasentha Park.
"He set a phenomenal course record," Oates said. "It was off the charts."

Rhodes-Devey ran the race in 13:58 last year to set the course record. He shattered that record this year with a time of 13:35.
"He took 23 seconds off," Oates said. "That is good if you are a 16 minute runner. At this end, it’s mind-boggling. And at the end of race, it was like he wasn’t even breathing [heavily]. He walked down and got his score card and his medal. He had another 15 seconds in the tank.
"To see where he was last year, he was spent after this race last year," Oates added. "It’s going to be interesting to see what he does at more established courses. Saratoga’s record goes back to 1983. And at Cortlandt Park, where they have had Olympic-caliber runners and records since 1952."

Oates expects Rhodes-Devey to have a great fall, mostly because of the work he put in during the summer.
"He upped his mileage during the past summer," Oates said. "He went 40 to 50 miles last year. I’m not a big believer in over-training. You run into problems especially with kids that are still growing. But Brian’s stopped growing so we upped him to 70 to 75 miles per week. He’s extremely disciplined in his nutritional and sleep habits."

Rhodes-Devey also went to Arizona and did some high-altitude training.
"He was excited to do some training at altitude," Oates said. "He also seeks out other runners. He is finding out what preparations other people are doing. He is a real student of the sport, as are all my kids. They are reading books, talking to people, and the Internet helps with that a lot."

32 teams compete

The girls’ large-school varsity race was won by Meaghan Gregory of Burnt Hills. She finished in a time of 16:24.7 and also led her team to the overall title.

The small-school girls’ race was won by Mary Kate Champagne of Seton Chatholic in Plattsburgh. She ran 17:04.11 to complete the course.

Hopinkton won the team title in the small-school division.

Cooperstown was the top small-school team and was led by Stephen Scrafford’s first-place finish. He covered the course in 14:51.24.

Oates said that 10 teams joined in the competition this year to bring the total to 32 teams.
"People like to try things," Oates said. "Word basically got around that Guilderland gives a good meet and we give out a lot of awards. We spend a lot of money on awards. Teams get awards and we give shirts to the top three teams."

Another reason for the boost in participants is that the course is similar to the Federation Meet course in Wappingers Falls.
"I put in the application that it’s a good introduction to the Federation Meet," Oates said. "Tawasentha is a good warm-up. The hills in Wappingers Falls are very similar in steepness and the trails are narrow like Tawasentha. The teams come down early and bring crowds and we have a good showing. One time we had a down year, and that was last year, and that’s probably because it rained the year before."

Guilderland boys

The Guilderland boys’ team was not expected to do much in the pre-season, especially with the graduation of top runners Justin Wager and Seth Dubois. But some younger kids are filling in the spots they left open.

Junior Roland Graves has put himself in the spot behind Rhodes-Devey.
"He is our second man right now," Oates said. "He has come a long way. Last year, he was running around a high 15. Now he runs a 14:42."

Jared Moriarty is coming off an injury from last year.
"He is back in the game," Oates said. "He set a personal record by 13 seconds. He is still feeling out his knee."

Justin Veldhuis was the fourth Guilderland runner to cross the line on Saturday.
"He’s a sophomore and he’s gotten a lot better," Oates said. "He put in a lot of miles over the summer."

Fabio Ritmo has opened some eyes this fall season.
"He was back in the pack last year," Oates said. "He was in the 40’s and 50’s and now he is on my seven-man varsity."

Jacob King moved up from the junior varsity and has been impressive on the varsity so far this season.

Kevin Sheehan also put in a good summer of work and will be a part of the varsity when he returns from injury.
"He put in 500 miles over this summer," Oates said. "Moving up from the junior varsity to varsity is tough but these guys worked at it. We were not expected to re-load. We were picked to be fifth or sixth in the Suburban Council. But we can do better than that."