GUILDERLAND — After having one of its best seasons in recent memory, the Guilderland boys’ cross-country team had a bad day at the Class AA Section II race at Queensbury last Friday.

The Dutchmen finished fourth — behind Saratoga, Shenendehowa, and Shaker — and defending champion Brian Rhodes-Devey finished fifth overall.

However, Rhodes-Devey and teammate Seth Dubois qualified for the Saturday state competition, that will also take place at Queensbury High School.
"It wasn’t the best," said Guilderland Coach Bob Oates. "They fell off a little bit. A few people improved. Greg Masto is usually our seventh, but he moved up to fifth.
"Seth Dubois did not have his best performance," Oates added, "and Brian definitely didn’t. He fell off by 18 seconds. Justin Wager, our third runner, was having problems with allergies. We have a good practice and the next practice we will be tired."

Rhodes-Devey finished fifth overall but was the second non-Saratoga runner to finish the race. Saratoga was the top team and the top five runners who are not on the top team also qualify for the states. Dubois was the last qualifier, coming in eighth overall.

Going into the race, Oates thought that, with the talent and the way his team had been running, it could finish second and even battle with Saratoga for the top spot.
"We were ranked seventh in the state coming into the race," Oates said. "We lost some key spots and lost to Shaker by 11 points. It’s not where we wanted to be. I thought we could make a run at Shen and maybe have a shot at Saratoga."

Oates hasn’t figured out what went wrong on Friday. Rhodes-Devey was near the front of the pack but fell off late in the race.
"We didn’t have the same performance that we’ve had all year," Oates said. "The other teams are extremely strong. We didn’t have a hot day. It was perfect weather. Our ducks just weren’t lined up."

Dubois almost didn’t qualify for the state meet; he held on for the final spot.
"He just made it," Oates said. "He had a kid from Shen breathing down his neck..."
"We compete with the best"
"I’m dumbfounded with what went wrong," Oates added.

Oates thinks that it could be the runner’s weren’t mentally prepared for the race.
"Sometimes the head plays games with a runner’s confidence," Oates said "I’m careful with their workouts but I’m not sure about what they eat and how they sleep. But we’ve not had a bad race all season."

The Dutchmen finished with an 8-3 record to put them third in the Suburban Council.
"We were third in a division of four teams," Oates said, "but we were ranked sixth in the state. We were third overall; that’s not a bad season. We compete with the best in the state."

After the state meet, Oates hopes to receive a Federation bid for his team. The Federation will include schools that are not part of the New York State Public High School Athletic Association.

After that, Oates hopes to take the team to the Foot Locker cross-country regionals that will take place in Van Cortlandt Park in New York City.

Rhodes-Devey has a good chance to do well at the state meet and get into the Foot Locker regionals and even the national meet in San Diego.
"The Foot Locker regionals have the best 40 people in the country," Oates said.

Oates feels Rhodes-Devey and Dubois will move on from Friday’s disappointment and be ready for Staturday’s state meet.

However, they are upset with their running last Friday.
"Coming into sectionals, I really believed we could make a run at it," Oates said. "I thought we could make an impact and get into the [sectional] patches. We were shooting for first, felt we had a great shot at second and expected third. But it’s about how five people cross the finish line. We fell off. We simply didn’t do well."