GUILDERLAND - Friday was a bit of a disappointing day for Coach Bob Oates and his Guilderland boys' cross-country team.

The Dutchmen finished fourth in the Class AA Section II race held in Saratoga. The Guilderland team had a goal of finishing in the top three, but finished three points behind Niskayuna for third place, 96-99.

Shenendehowa won the Class AA race with 39 points and Shaker was second with 44.
"Seven out of 10 guys did not run their personal best," Oates said on Tuesday. "Seven out of 10 could have been a little better. I would have liked if it was five out of 10 did not run to what they were capable of.
"Checking back at the numbers," Oates added, "to see where we did not do well. I have to look at the workouts and see when did I go wrong. The kids have worked hard and have the desire."
"You never know what's going to happen," Oates said. "We beat Niskayuna during the year so we might have been overconfident. They were running hard and they raised the bar much like Shaker did."

What might be at stake for the Dutchmen is a spot in the Federation meet next weekend in Wappingers Falls. Oates and his team will find out if they qualify for the state-wide by -invitation-only meet after the state meet is held on Saturday in Norwood in the North Country this Saturday.
"We were in a good spot for a Fed bid prior to Friday," Oates said. "Losing to Nisky hurt us. We're sixth in the merged standings. I don't know if they will take six teams from Section II. They've done it before, but they take only 16 teams total. And there are a lot of good teams. Anything is possible.
"We'll find out on Saturday at 4 p.m," Oates added. "But now the odds are less in our favor. If it comes down to one spot, Niskayuna, by beating us, should go."

Graves goes to states

Oates will have a race to coach on Saturday at the state meet. For the second year in a row, senior Roland Graves qualified to run in the state meet.

Graves finished seventh overall in the Section II race with a time of 15:42.1. He was the fifth runner to qualify. The top five runners not from the winning team - in this case Shen - qualify for the state meet. The Plainsmen had two runners in the top six, opening a spot for Graves.
"Roland ran a 15:34 last year," Oates said. "He has run 15:42 in back-to-back races, the Suburban Council's and the sectionals. We were looking to have him run between 15:15 and 15:10 this year. He led at the mile, but some guys got ahead of him. And what happens in distance running is, when someone goes ahead of you and you do not respond, you start fighting with yourself. It goes to your head.
"Running 15:42 is a respectable time," Oates added. "But it's not where he wants to be. We're working on dealing with pressure. He's got the spotlight now and he is on the front page of The Enterprise and things like that.
"It's a lot of pressure for a 17-year old. He's starting to realize what's the worse thing that happens when you don't do well. You didn't do well and you feel worse about it. But the sun comes up the next day."

Senior Jake King finished 17th overall in the race. He clocked a time of 16:07.8.

Justin Veldhuis ran 16:29.3 to finish 23rd overall. Will Russo was 24th with a time of 16:30.4 and Kevin Sheehan was the last point-scorer with a 28th-place finish in a time of 16:41.6.

Fabio Ritmo and Gianni Vissat also ran for Guilderland in the race, but sixth and seventh on the team and only the top five scores count to the team's score.
"Jake King ran incredible," Oates said. "He took 26 seconds off his time. Will Russo took 39 seconds off his time and Ritmo took 15 seconds off his.
"Those guys came up big," Oates added. "King has settled into being the second man. He has his ups and downs. He'll run a great race one day and another day he'll run a bad race. We're working to get his confidence high on a more consistent basis. And it's helped him. He ran a personal best at the Suburban Council meet."

Oates would like to give all his runners one more race to run. Graves will run as an individual at the Federation meet.
"I want to be at Federation," Graves said. "Last year, a number of our runners went and I would like another shot at Bowdoin Park."