@pgxc-high-noon and @pgxc-women, the lesson of the 2021 season is: Go to Akron Falls.
Three examples:
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The High Noon Men’s Masters team tied for third with Roadkill (and then beat them on the championship race tiebreaker) purely by virtue of fielding a Masters team at Akron Falls. It was our only team for the day, cobbled together from Adam Engst and Jean-Luc Jannink from Vets, Tristan Lambert from Masters, and Charlie Fay and Carl Franck from Super Vets.
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In the Men’s Vets individual competition, Adam Engst took fourth overall and Jean-Luc Jannink sixth overall. Without their third and fourth place finishes at Akron Falls, Adam would have dropped to sixth overall and Jean-Luc to thirteenth, out of the wine.
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The FLRC Women’s Vets team won the first, second, and fourth races. But they weren’t able to field a team at Akron Falls, with Sandy Gregorich and Brenda Osovski having to run down to Masters with Patty Larkin. Losing those Akron Falls points meant that FLRC tied with GVH at 22 points and was relegated to second by losing to GVH at the championship meet tiebreaker.
So next year, when the race schedule comes out, no wimping out on Akron Falls. The Buffalo Checkers squad brought a full slate of teams to our race at Taughannock, where they tied us in Women’s Open (only losing thanks to Gabby Woo’s fifth place tiebreaker), won Women’s Masters, took third behind our win in Women’s Vets, won Women’s Super Vets, took second in Men’s Open, won Men’s Masters, took fourth in Men’s Vets, and took second in Men’s Super Vets. In short, Checkers drove just as far and cleaned our clocks in our home meet—the least we can do is give them a run for their money at Akron Falls.
Team Results
With the team scoring, the rules specify that the top five finishing teams in each division will receive points on a 6-4-3-2-1 basis. At the end of the series, those points are totaled. Ties are broken by placement on championship day. The top team won Team Champions pint glasses; the second and third teams won similar glasses without the Team Champions label, so four of our teams took home awards.
Here’s how our teams fared:
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FLRC Women’s Open: 1st. This was a powerful, dominant team even without several of its best runners for some races. It was uplifting to see them posting wins regularly, and the terrific trio of Kathleen Kanaley, Jenny Berkowitz, and Sarah Codd ran as a pack in races and regularly traded finishing positions. Sarah Ridenour, Molly Doruska, and Amalia Skilton all contributed key scoring as well.
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FLRC Masters Women: 4th. Thanks to Michelle Woods and Patty Larkin, we fielded teams for four of five races. Although we never were really competitive with Checkers and STC and GVH, showing up counts.
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FLRC Vets Women: 2nd. Another great combination of Caitlin Loehr, Sandy Gregorich, Brenda Osovski, and Kim Jackson made for a strong team that finished second only for lack of having a team at Akron Falls.
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FLRC Super Vets Women: No score, having fielded a full three-woman team only at Taughannock. Let’s do better next year!
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FLRC U19 Mixed: No score, again because having a full five-kid team only at Taughannock. But that doesn’t detract from the consistent efforts of Banyan Love, Ben Lambert, and Oliver Lambert, who showed up and ran with enthusiasm all season.
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High Noon Men’s Open: 3rd. This year’s team lacked some of the top places from previous years, due in part to injury and the Boston Marathon, but with three Adams and an Alex (Adam Pacheck, Adam Berkowitz, Adam Schoene, and Alex Drazic) still ran well against far deeper teams from Checkers and STC.
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High Noon Men’s Masters: 3rd. Again, getting those points at Akron Falls was key, as was beating Roadkill on championship day for the tiebreaker. We need regulars from previous years back next year to help five-race regular Tristan Lambert and speedster Scott Weeks—we have the local strength to win this category.
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High Noon Men’s Vets: No score, due to failing to field a full team on championship day, even after pulling Carl Franck down from Super Vets. Injury was to blame for this one, slowing Adam Engst and sidelining Alex Colvin, both of whom have placed second overall individually in previous years. And with others hurt, we failed to field teams twice.
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High Noon Men’s Super Vets: 4th. Lacking Charlie Fay for the first race and Casey Carlstrom for the first three races, this team fell back early in the season. It fared better in the last two races, but it was too late to make up the distance on GVH in third.
Individual Results
The way scoring works is that the top15 runners in each age group will receive points on a 20-17-14-12-11-10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 basis. Unlike the team competition, only your best four races count, so you can miss one (except championship day) or drop your lowest; the rest of the points are totaled. The top ten in each age group win a bottle of wine (or chocolate for the kids); they’re bolded and pictured below.
Here’s how we did (you can also check the nicely formatted spreadsheet)
FLRC Women’s Open
| Place | Name | #1 | #2 | #3 | #4 | #5 | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 | Kathleen Kanaley | 17 | 10 | - | 12 | 14 | 53 |
| 6 | Jennifer Berkowitz | 14 | 12 | - | 7 | 8 | 41 |
| 8 | Sarah Codd | 8 | 11 | - | 9 | 5 | 33 |
| 20 | Louise Debefve | 0 | - | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 |
| 22 | Molly Doruska | - | 1 | - | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 29 | Sarah Ridenour | 0 | 0 | - | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 30 | Amalia Skilton | 0 | 0 | - | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| - | Ashley Brown | - | 0 | - | 0 | - | - |
| - | Bella Burda | - | - | - | 17 | - | - |
| - | Elizabeth Fabis | - | - | - | 0 | - | - |
| - | Margaret Frank | - | - | - | 2 | - | - |
| - | Liz Hartman | - | - | - | 0 | - | - |
| - | Amanda King | - | - | - | 0 | - | - |
| - | Amanda Lockett | 0 | 0 | - | - | - | - |
| - | Kate McCormick | - | - | - | 0 | - | - |
| - | Gabrielle Woo | - | - | - | 3 | - | - |
FLRC Women’s Masters
| Place | Name | #1 | #2 | #3 | #4 | #5 | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 14 | Michelle Woods | 5 | - | - | 5 | 2 | 12 |
| 17 | Patty Larkin | 1 | - | 2 | 0 | 0 | 3 |
| 19 | Julie Barclay | - | - | - | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| - | Kristina Harrison | 0 | - | - | - | - | - |
FLRC Women’s Vets
| Place | Name | #1 | #2 | #3 | #4 | #5 | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 | Caitlin Loehr | 12 | 14 | - | 17 | 17 | 60 |
| 6 | Brenda Osovski | 11 | 12 | 9 | 10 | 8 | 42 |
| 7 | Sandra Gregorich | 10 | 9 | 11 | 9 | 9 | 39 |
| 11 | Kim Jackson | 4 | 5 | - | 3 | 4 | 16 |
FLRC Women’s Super Vets
| Place | Name | #1 | #2 | #3 | #4 | #5 | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| - | Nancy Kleinrock | - | - | - | 17 | - | - |
| - | Anne Shakespeare | 8 | 6 | - | 7 | - | - |
| - | Ruth Sproul | - | - | - | 5 | - | - |
FLRC U19
| Place | Name | #1 | #2 | #3 | #4 | #5 | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Banyan Love | 14 | 17 | 20 | 12 | 11 | 63 |
| 2 | Benjamin Lambert | 11 | 11 | 14 | 10 | 8 | 46 |
| 3 | Oliver Lambert | 12 | 12 | - | 9 | 7 | 40 |
| 4 | Trent Thibault | - | - | - | 17 | 10 | 27 |
| - | Jack Barton | - | - | - | 14 | - | - |
| - | Ryan Savage | 10 | - | - | 8 | - | - |
High Noon Men’s Open
| Place | Name | #1 | #2 | #3 | #4 | #5 | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6 | Adam Pacheck | 9 | - | - | 8 | 9 | 26 |
| 10 | Alexander Drazic | 8 | 7 | - | 4 | 0 | 19 |
| 13 | Adam Berkowitz | 4 | 8 | - | 5 | 0 | 17 |
| 36 | Patrick Milano | - | - | - | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 41 | Adam Schoene | 0 | 0 | - | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 44 | Bill Watson | 0 | - | - | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| - | Matthew Bishop | - | - | - | 0 | - | - |
| - | Kevin Dombrosky | - | - | - | 0 | - | - |
| - | Pierson Geyer | - | - | - | 0 | - | - |
| - | Charlie Hale | - | 0 | - | 0 | - | - |
| - | Sam Lagasse | 17 | - | - | - | - | - |
| - | Ethan Pacheck | - | - | - | 0 | - | - |
High Noon Men’s Masters
| Place | Name | #1 | #2 | #3 | #4 | #5 | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 16 | Tristan Lambert | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 20 | Damian Clemons | - | - | - | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 27 | Aaron Ristow | - | - | - | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| - | David Kania | 3 | - | - | 0 | - | - |
| - | Steve Savage | - | - | - | 0 | - | - |
| - | William Thibault | - | - | - | - | 0 | - |
| - | Jordan Varano | - | - | - | - | 9 | - |
| - | Columbia Warren | 0 | 0 | - | 5 | - | - |
| - | Scott Weeks | 14 | - | - | 12 | - | - |
High Noon Men’s Vets
| Place | Name | #1 | #2 | #3 | #4 | #5 | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4 | Adam Engst | 11 | 12 | 14 | 9 | 8 | 46 |
| 6 | Jean-Luc Jannink | 10 | 10 | 12 | - | 3 | 35 |
| 28 | James Loehr | 0 | 0 | - | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| - | Jesse Koennecke | 0 | - | - | 0 | - | - |
| - | Kevin Nelson | 0 | 0 | - | - | - | - |
| - | Joey Randall | - | 11 | - | 7 | - | - |
| - | Steve Shaum | - | - | - | 0 | - | - |
| - | Robert Swizdor | - | - | - | 0 | - | - |
| - | Steven Vanek | - | - | - | 0 | - | - |
High Noon Men’s Super Vets
| Place | Name | #1 | #2 | #3 | #4 | #5 | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8 | Casey Carlstrom | - | - | - | 14 | 12 | 26 |
| 11 | Charlie Fay | - | 5 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 23 |
| 13 | Alan Lockett | 7 | 3 | - | 0 | 7 | 17 |
| 25 | Carl Franck | - | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| - | David Ellison | - | - | - | 0 | - | - |
| - | Gary Pacheck | - | - | - | 0 | - | - |
| - | Dave Talcott | 1 | - | - | - | - | - |
| - | Joel Leff | 20 | 20 | - | - | - | - |
High Noon Men’s Ultra Vets
| Place | Name | #1 | #2 | #3 | #4 | #5 | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| - | Joel Leff | 20 | 20 | - | - | - | - |
That’s it for 2021, but here’s hoping we can overcome the injuries, recruit harder, and show the big city teams of Buffalo, Syracuse, and Rochester more of what we can do next year!