Written by Parents, Bronxville High School Cross Country Team

Oct. 22, 2014: Sitting on 150 beautiful acres, Woodlands High School in Greenburgh was host to Bronxville's boys' and girls' varsity cross country teams as they swept the Conference III, League B Championships on October 7.

Scoring 21 points to capture the title with second-place Edgemont at 44, Bronxville's boys boasted five of the top ten finishers in the 3.1 mile race. Sean Ryan crossed the finish line first with a personal best of 17:15 in a dramatic neck-and-neck finish, barely leaning ahead of the second-place finisher, who also crossed at 17:15. On his tail was Joe Dougherty for third at 18:05, Alex Rizzo and Henry Vollmer in fourth and fifth, respectively, with 18:34 (PR) and 18:35, and Hiroshi Kawakatsu in eighth with 19:03.

Not to be outdone by her brother, Bronxville's Kaitlin Ryan claimed first place for the girls with a 19:40 and led the girls' varsity cross country team to a first-place win with 18 points, with Ardsley coming in a distant 61 points for second place. Delia Hayes crossed second at 19:49, and in a nearly complete sweep, Bronxville's Olivia Scotti, Hilary Rizzo, Carlie Hoffer, Lindsay Nobles, Saige Sunier, and Marguerite Scotti claimed fourth through ninth places, respectively, with the following times: 20:27, 21:11, 21:12, 21:14, 22:12, 23:13.

Drawing upon their league victories, both girls and boys fielded three separate teams (frosh, JV, and varsity) in the widely attended Section 1 Coaches Invitational meet this past Saturday, October 18, at Bowdoin Park in Wappingers Falls. Kaitlin Ryan again swept first place with 19:14 (PR) for the 5K race and led the girls' varsity team to second place in the Varsity 3 race (107 runners, 14 teams) and second place in the merge of all three varsity races (335 runners, 42 teams). In the Varsity 3 race, Hayes took third at 19:32, O. Scotti was eighth at 20:21, Rizzo was thirteenth at 20:40, and Nobles was sixteenth at 20:52. When merging all three varsity heats, Ryan's time earned her fourth place in a total field of 335 runners, and Hayes placed seventh.

The girls' JV team placed fourth out of nine teams in the JV 2 race, and frosh girls swept their race, placing first (Caroline Kirby), second (M. Scotti), third (Kirsten Ircha), fourth (Isabella Dibbini), sixth (Isabella Lamadrid), and eighth (Haley Barr).

The boys' Varsity 2 team placed ninth of 22 teams (173 runners) and twenty-second out of 56 teams (461 runners) overall.

In addition to the top-scoring runners above, the boys' team includes the following runners: Sam Arcano, Sam Brashear, Christian Burkee, Jack Carty, Tim Caruso, Ben Grieco, Denis Izotov, Andrew Lamadrid, Michael Landy, Clay Layton, John Marshall, Justin McCarthy, Tim McGrath, Taber Minich, Sean Mooney, Tim Murray, Charlie Preusse, Matt Pytosh, John Recine, Liam Siegal, Tim Sullivan, Kenny Taylor, and Hank Thomas.

Additional runners for the girls include Noor Ahmad, Allegra Alfano, Gigi Chrappa, Sydney Coddington, Kathleen Conaton, Samantha Devries, Sophia Dibbini, Fernanda Fraser, Nicole Giangola, Ansley Jones, Emme Kerj, Pilar Layton, Emma Lewis, Emma Mandanas, Katherine Marrinan, Molly Palma, Nicola Phillips, Meagan Scotti, Emily Spitz, and Veronica Walsh.

The boys are coached by Jim Agnello and assistant coach Nick Russo, and the girls are led by Jim Mitchell and assistant coach Jennifer Zopp.

Both teams will continue their season at the County Championships on October 25 at Woodlands High School, followed by Section One Championships on November 1 again at Bowdoin Park. Come support the teams!

Go Broncos.

Pictured here (rotating): Boys' cross country team; boys' varsity cross country team; team start with Bronco flag; Sean Ryan and Joe Dougherty at Woodlands; Kaitlin Ryan and Delia Hayes at Woodlands. 

Photo of the boys' cross country team by Nancee Adams-Taylor; other photos by Charlotte Rizzo