Sunday, Dec. 8, 2013: F-M girls reign at Nike Cross Nationals ends

   Leading off today: A long run -- pun intended -- of success ended Saturday, though it was certainly a close call.

   The Fayetteville-Manlius girls cross country team saw its string of seven Nike Cross Nationals championships in Portland, Ore., snapped by a 108-120 margin to Wayzata (Minn.) High, which placed all seven of its runners ahead of the Hornets' No. 4 racer.

   With Saratoga and Hilton having won the event in the two years before F-M began its remarkable string of success, Saturday's was the first girls championship captured by a team from outside New York. (See: Past N.Y. girls results)

   Unofficial splits showed F-m with a slight lead in team scoring with one kilometer left in the race.

   "It was cold but we were used to running in the cold," F-M's Annika Avery told The Post-Standard after finishing 20th.

   Saratoga's girls placed 15th with 373 points, marking the lowest finish ever by a New York girls teams -- which speaks volumes about how dominating the state's entries have been in the event's decade-long history.

   In the boys race, Fayetteville-Manlius finished fourth on the heels of their 16th-place finish in Portland a year earlier. Gig Harbor (Wash.) won with just 111 points, and F-M's 216 was at the lead of a tightly packed fourth through eighth places.

   Among other New York schools, Northport was 11th at 299 and Liverpool 20th at 401.

   Girls soccer stars: Niskayuna forward Meghan Doyle has repeated as Class AA girls soccer co-player of the year, the New York State Sportswriters and Coaches Organization for Girls Sports announced Sunday.

   Doyle shared top player honors in the largest class with fellow senior Kayla Cappuzzo, a midfielder from Calhoun.

   Rockville Centre South Side junior forward Keri Cavallo was selected the top player in Class A. Oneonta's Taryn More and Mariah Ruff shared the honor in Class B.

   In Class C, the player of the year honor went to Olivia Schmidt, Holland's sophomore midfielder/forward. The pick in Class D was Kaitlin Huyler, a senior forward at Jasper-Troupsburg.

   Players of the year, coaches of the year and the full all-state team can be found here.

   Milestone alert: Waterville girls basketball coach Larry Stockwell won his 400th career game Saturday in the Indians' 50-28 victory against Berne-Knox-Westerlo.

   Stockwell recently began his 31st season on the bench, with the past 26 at Waterville, and has taught mathematics at Waterville for 39 years. He is 400-218 overall.

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   Alexis Decker led Waterville with 17 points and Hannah Gray added 10 in the victory over the Bulldogs as part of the Section 2 vs. Section 3 Challenge at Fort Plain.

   "It's not about me," Stockwell told the Observer-Dispatch. "It's about the town, the school. We have a lot of great players and here has been a lot of support from a lot of people and a lot of hard work. It's about my players, and developing players who are great people. It's about people."

   Staying power: Rich Reichert is 61 years old and known to many as "coach." At St. Anthony's, where Reichert does in fact coach football, he can be referred to by several of his colleagues as "kid."

   Jason Molinet wrote a feature last week for Newsday on the veteran members of the St. A's staff. including football assistant Tony Petrilli, 80; girls soccer coach Dave Prutting, 76; and boys soccer coach Gene Buonaiuto, 77.