BKW cross-country
BERNE Sectional competition spurred another good performance for the Berne-Knox-Westerlo cross-country teams.
The boys team has been a perennial contender for the past few years and the girls team has gotten stronger. Both proved their mettle at the Section II meet Friday at Saratoga Springs State Park.
The boys team finished third in the Class C race. The Bulldogs tallied a score of 107 points to finish behind Voorheesville and Fonda-Fultonville. Voorheesville won with 70 points.
The girls team finished in fourth place with 148 points behind Greenwich, which won with an amazing 25 points. Fonda and Voorheesville were second and third.
"I’m extremely pleased with the team," said BKW Coach Bill Tindale after the girls’ race on Friday. "Everybody beat their best times. I was thinking, we hopefully, would be in the top five. For a team with only six girls, that is a very good year."
Only one BKW runner qualified for the state meet that will be held in Warwick this weekend. Ada Lauterbach will be going for the third year in a row. She won Class C this year, but, like much of the team, was a victim of Greenwichs move up from Class D.
Lauterbach finished sixth this year. Greenwich runners finished in the top three spots so she was the third non-Greenwich runner to finish. The top five runners not from the winning team also advance to the states.
"I’m happy I made it," Lauterbach said after her race. "I was hoping I would do better. But it is what I worked for. I was happy I broke up the Greenwich pack."
Lauterbach finished with a time of 19:34.5. Greenwichs Caitlin Lane finished in 18:04.8. The Saratoga High School transfer standout was followed by Brittney Lane and Cady Kuzmich.
Lauterbach will give states another good shot. She has experience running the big race, but has not run at the course in Warwick this year.
"I definitely like running places that I’m unfamiliar with," she said. "Like Warwick, I’ve never been there before."
Lauterbach missed some running this season as her mother was battling cancer but she came back and got right on track.
"I was a little rusty at first," Lauterbach said. "After the WAC race, I felt like I broke through a barrier. And I’ve gotten better from there."
"She ran a good race," Tindale said. "She came out pretty hard. From race to race this year, she has made tremendous progress. She ran a great race at the WAC championship. She won by 32 seconds. For her, on a good day, she is right up there with anybody."
Lauterbach was followed by teammates Christina Bartonicek, who finished 22nd in a time of 20:51. Katrina Yakel, Michelle Raymond, and Claire Della Rocco followed for the Bulldogs. Justine Crevatas also was in the race but her place didnt figure into the scoring for BKW. Only the top runners from each team score points.
Boys team
The boys team was paced by Jared Finke. Finke finished seventh overall in 16:37. Dave Haverly was 18th overall for BKW in a time of 17:25.5. Tyler Merrill, Tommy Della Rocco, and Tyler Mesick scored points for BKW. Aaron Giebitz and Jeff Moller also ran for BKW but did not score points.
The Bulldogs finished second to Fonda on Friday but beat the Braves in the Western Athletic Conference meet a little more than a week before the sectional championships.
"We ran a great race that day," Tindale said. "It was a team race. Jared Finke finished fourth and Dave Haverly was sixth. He was the hero of the day. He ran his best race ever
Messick is the only member of the boys team that will be graduating this year. Della Rocco and Raymond are the only senior runners girls team.
The girls team also has another group of younger runners waiting in the wings.
"We had a nice modified team," Tindale said of junior high runners. "We’re trying to get more numbers. But the runners we have, have a great attitude and are dedicated to the team."