GUILDERLAND - The Guilderland girls' cross-country team came into Friday's Class AA Section II race with two goals.

Both were accomplished and the Lady Dutch did something they haven't done since 1993.

Guilderland finished third as a team in the race behind perennial powers Saratoga and Shenendehowa for the first time since 1993. The Lady Dutch are now hoping to earn a spot in the prestigious, invitation-only Federation meet in Wappingers Falls next weekend.

The Lady Dutch also had all five runners break 19 minutes on the Saratoga Spa State Park course.
"That was a best case scenario," Guilderland Coach Dave Kosier said. "Saratoga is one of the best teams in the country and Shen has been running phenomenally. They are ranked third in the state. We were looking at third and, if we ran well, we would have a shot at it. We knew Colonie would be real tough and Niskayuna would be tough. They beat us the week before and we squeaked by Colonie by a couple points. I knew it would be a battle between us, Niskayuna, and Colonie.
"Our girls' ran phenomenally," Kosier added. "Running 19 minutes on Saratoga's course for girls is a good mark. We've had one girl achieve that in the past couple of years. Two years ago, Jen Madsen ran 18:59. We wanted an average of under 19 minutes and that would help have a chance at the Federation meet. Our top five girls ran under 19 minutes."

Everybody clicks

The Lady Dutch came in third with a combined score of 81 points to beat Colonie by 10. Shen finished second with 73 points and Saratoga won with 30 points.

Ninth-grader Erin Mossop was the first Guilderland runner to cross the finish line. She came in 12th overall with a time of 18:34.1.

Lynley Joynt, a junior, finished 13th with a time of 18:36.8. Lea Cure, an eighth-grader, ran 18:39.4 to finish 14th.

Kelly Camardo, an eighth-grader, finished 19th with a time of 18:51.2. Classmate Anna Pickett finished 23rd in a time of 18:57.3.

Juniors Jen Madsen and Allie Di Mura were the next two Guilderland finishers, but only the top five runners count toward the team score. Madsen was 33rd in 19:30.4 and Di Mura finished 35th in 19:32.6.
"I knew they had the ability to do it," Kosier added. "It's something that is tough to do in sports, especially in cross-country. It's hard to get everybody to click."

No Guilderland runners qualified to run in the state meet that will be held this weekend. However, the bids for the Federation meet will be held at the conclusion of the state meet race, so Kosier will have to wait until Saturday night to know if they made it or not.
"The girls are extremely excited," Kosier said. "They got a sectional patch there. And we're practicing this week, as though we're going."

"Team effort"

Although he's coaching a lot of talented runners, Kosier is not surprised that no one qualified for the state meet.
"That's the kind of season we've had," he said. "We haven't had a front-runner that's won races. It's truly been a team effort with us. We haven't had a runner that gets a top five at big invitationals. But we finish in quite a pack.
"Our runners finish less than 30 seconds apart," Kosier added. "That's obviously something you have to have in cross-country. We want a close gap between one and five."

Kosier and his assistant coaches have been keeping an all-time top-25 runners at different courses in the area, including at Saratoga.
"We always run championship meets at Saratoga and had some great runners come through here," Kosier said. "We re-wrote the list. At the sectionals on Friday, we had the sixth, seventh, eighth, 12th, and 15th times on the all-time top-25 at Saratoga. Most of the lists go back to 1998 or 1999 and Saratoga goes back a lot longer."

It was the first time since 1993 the Lady Dutch finished as high as third at the Section II meet.
"This section is so strong in distance running," Kosier said. "The girls were excited about doing something that had not been done in a long time."

And none of the runners is a senior.
"Of the 10 people who ran and the two alternates," Kosier said, "they are all underclassmen. The highest were 11th-graders".
"We're excited about that," Kosier added. "We have a future, too. I'm hoping that we get any invite to Feds this year. You never know about next year. We're running great now, so let's keep it going."