2008 Manhattan Invitational
It was a beautiful October day as the Shaker Boys and Girls teams returned to Van Cortlandt Park to compete in the Manhattan Invitational on Saturday, October 11th. There were many highlights as the Shaker teams returned home with a school record 63 individual medals in races against the toughest competition they faced all season.
Frosh Girls and Boys:
The Frosh Girls team brought home Shaker’s only team championship trophy as they won their race for the second consecutive year…this time with several new faces. They were led, as they have been all season by 7th grader Laura Libruk, who actually got to run in her first Manhattan race after traveling to Van Cortlandt Park to watch her brother run the last couple years. She was joined by teammates Kayleigh Lavender, Kristen Moras, Emily Franko and Jessica Dzialo who were all among the top 25 finishers in capturing the title. In other Frosh Girls races, the other Shaker runners with top 25 finishes were Erin Bryk, Kristy Hayes, Faith Risler and Amanda Sacca.
The highly regarded Shaker Frosh Boys team, in a strange twist, was placed in the same race as the Shenendehowa Frosh team. Many running fans have considered these two teams the best Freshman teams in New York State this year. In fact, the only losses for either team in the last two years in either league meets or Invitationals have been to each other. So the stage was set for what may have been the most competitive team battle of the day. The race was won by Shaker’s Mike Libruk as he completed the course in a time that was tied for the second fastest of any Shaker athlete to ever run the Manhattan Invy Freshman course. He was joined by top 25 finishes from Brian O’Connor, Ryan Recchia, Adam Schwenzfeier, Caleb Mellon and Brian Hickey. The top five Shaker finishers completed the course with a team time faster than any other Freshman team that day. Yet, despite a performance that would have won any of the other four Freshman races on Saturday, the Shaker team was defeated by an equally strong Shen team by a score of 34-38 [the 3rd place team had 154 points]. The disappointed, yet still proud Shaker runners were left with the second place trophy and even greater motivation for the next showdown with Shen.
Sophomore Girls and Boys and JV Girls and Boys:
The Sophomore Girls brought home another team trophy with their second place finish. They were led by the sixth place finish of Blair Burke, who was joined in the top 25 by Nicole Wiegman and Jennifer Jin. The Soph Boys finished third with strong races by Dave Marthy, Casey Gilboy and Kyle Foster. In the JV Boys race, Brian McConkey was the top Shaker finisher. For the JV Girls, Tirzah Ziegler and Christine Hall were among the top 25 finishers. The strong performances by the younger Shaker runners are positive signs for Coach Springstead and Coach Gansle and the future of Shaker running programs.
Varsity Girls and Boys:
The Varsity Girls team was again led by Emma Risler, Morgan Wojtusik and Zosia Dunn. The three top runners (all will be returning next year) helped the team finish in 4th place out of 30 teams in their race. The Varsity Boys team was led by Craig Weiss (10th) and Ryan Egan (20th) as the team finished 9th of 36 teams. Several Shaker runners will be added to the all-time top performances at Van Cortlandt Park when the updates are completed after the season (see this week’s Inside Track).