North boys claim fifth straight title; Amherst wins races, girls take team crown
Town of Amherst Championships

Williamsville North's boys cross country team won its fifth straight Town of Amherst Championship. Members of the team, pictured from left, are: first row - Steve Willert, Tom Calandra, co-captains Mike Thielman and Geoff Hurley, Joe Seitz, Ryan Perry, and Rob Golightly; second row - Don Seitz, Carl Copeland, Patrick Steadman, Brad Weinstein, Richard Rockwell, Matt Helm, and John Boser; missing from photo - Nate Chertack and Charles Jordan.

It was good to be a member of the Williamsville North boys and Amherst Central girls cross country teams at last Friday's 18th Town of Amherst Championships. The 3.1-mile course was run under sunny, 86-degree temperatures at Sweet Home High School.

The Spartans boys scored 41 points and had three of the top seven finishers to win their fifth straight Town of Amherst race. The Lady Tigers, led by sophomore Brenna Symoniak, won the girls race with 45 points, edging Williamsville South, who placed second with 49 points. Symoniak won the girls race in 19:28.

Amherst senior David Szymkowiak won the boys race in a time of 16:45.

Williamsville North's Geoff Hurley finished third in boys race at the Town of Amherst Championships in a time of 17:13. Photo by Patrick McPartland Purchase color photos at www. BeeNews. com

Boys

Earning All-Amherst First Team honors behind Szymkowiak was East senior Andy MacDonald (17:05), North senior Geoff Hurley (17:13), North junior Mike Thielman (17:16), Sweet Home senior Mike Bakowski (17:28), Sweet Home junior Isaac Hagen (18:17) and North junior Joe Seitz (18:22).

South senior Dave Quinlan (18:24), North sophomore Ryan Perry (18:32), Amherst freshman Jamie Schwartz (18:33), South junior John Stark (18:35), Amherst senior Jeremy Jones (18:37), Sweet Home senior Quincy Stumptner (18:45) and East junior Scott Ryan (18:47) picked up Second Team accolades.

North was followed in team scoring by Amherst (61), South (77), Sweet Home (79) and East (83).

Tom Calandra completed the team scoring for North in 19:30. Other performances from the Spartans included Steve Willert (19:31), Rob Golightly (19:48), Pat Steadman (19:53), Nate Chertack (21:24), Carl Copeland (21:27), John Boser (22:41), Matt Helm (22:46), Don Seitz (22:47), Rich Rockwell (24:15) and Brad Weinstein (27:34).

Sweet Home's Colleen Kozlowski finished eighth in the girls race in 22:05. The Lady Panthers placed third. Photo by Patrick McPartland Purchase color photos at www. BeeNews. com

Kory Roche (19:03), Kyle Cotter (20:27) and Sam Huoh (20:28) also ran for Amherst. Mike Herr (17th), Russ Schiess (22nd), Bruce Hibler (23rd), Jake Vogan (34th) and Robert Freeman (44th) competed for South.

Girls

Amherst won the girls race because they had three of the top four place finishes.

Besides Symoniak's first place, Sophomore Tori Sosnowski came in third in 21:30, and senior Diane Herzog was fourth in 21:46.

South sophomore Amanda Breymeier placed second in 20:43. Teammate senior Colleen Hurtubise was sixth in 21:57. Sweet Home had two finishes in the top seven, senior Elyse Cramer (fifth, 21:51) and junior Katie Gambles (seventh, 22:00). All seven earned All-Amherst First Team accolades. It was the second straight year Hurtubise made the First Team.

Earning Second Team honors and finishing eighth through 14th were Sweet Home junior Colleen Kozlowski (22:05), North eighth-grader Rachel Dorogi (22:10), North junior Kim Berus (22:21), South sophomores M.C. Aungst (22:23) and Jenny Mooney (22:25), Sweet Home sophomore Laura DelSignore (22:32) and North eighth-grader Sarah Loud (22:43).

Sweet Home finished third in team scoring with 67 points, one point better than North's 68. East placed fifth with 130 points.

Other times came from Olivia May (23:08), Violet Penna (23:24) and Katie Smith (23:25) of Amherst; Natalie Worley (16th, 23:05), Amy Loud (19th, 23:23), Michelle Bauman (25th, 24:10), Kaila Raybuck (26th, 25:27), Dawn Hu (27th, 25:28), Stephanie Kranz (32nd, 26:14), Jessica Leising (27:10) and Eden Fried (31:16) of North; and Maxine Meyehofer (18th), Laura Johnston (23rd) and Rachel Zucker (23rd) of South.

In other cross-country news: Symoniak took 11th in the seeded large school girls race, and Szymkowiak placed 12th in the unseeded medium schools boys race at the McQuaid Invitational on Sept. 28 at Genesee Valley Park in Rochester. Symoniak ran a time of 17:58; Szymkowiak came in at 16:23. The Amherst girls are 2-2 in dual meets; the boys are 3-1.