Sunday, Oct. 15, 2017: Tuohy crushes Manhattan Invitational record

   Leading off today: Katelyn Tuohy really outdid herself this time. The sophomore from North Rockland won her race at the Manhattan Invitational on Saturday, in the process obliterating the Van Cortlandt Park course record.

   Tuohy's time of 13:21.8 over four kilometers in the girls Varsity C race broke the record of 13:53.9 by Corning's Jessica Lawson two years ago. She finished more than a minute and a half ahead of runner-up Justus Holden-Betts (14:56.1) of Baldwinsville.

   She became just the fifth girl ever to break 14 minutes on the 100-year-old course. Bill Meylan of TullyRunners.com assigned a speed rating of 166 to the performance, the highest ever for that distance.

   Tuohy managed to overshadow a devastatingly strong win by the Fayetteville-Manlius girls in the featured Eastern States Championship. With sophomore Claire Walters (14:13.2), senior Sophie Ryan (14:18.5) and sophomore Phoebe White (14:20.1) finishing at the front of the pack, the Hornets tied their 2009 meet record with just 22 points to easily outdistance Liverpool (127).

   It was the Hornets' first invitational in almost a month and put to rest the notion that some other New York squad might make a run at them this fall. It was also a message to national competitors that perhaps they would be better advised to point toward the Foot Locker Nationals in San Diego rather than Nike Cross Nationals.

   Lincroft (N.J.) CBA won the boys Eastern States team title, but Mason Gatewood of St. Anthony's finished in 12:17.4 for the day's best time.

   The day's other individual champions from New York were:

• Guilderland junior Noah Tindale (12:49.1) in boys Varsity B.
• Pearl River senior Matt Politis (12:53.6) in boys C.
• Goshen senior Liam Higgins (12:33.2) in boys D.
• Warwick Valley sophomore Behailu Bekele-Arcuri (12:40.7) in boys E.
• Nanuet junior Ryan Guerci (12:57.2) in boys F.
• Syosset senior Reilly Siebert (14.50.6) in girls B.
• Brooklyn Tech senior Aziza Chigataeva (15:22.6) in girls D.
• Shoreham-Wading River senior Katherine Lee (14:25.0) in girls E.
• Suffern senior Mary Hennelly (14:53.7) in girls F.

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   Teams pulling down championships included Guilderland in boys B, Cornwall in boys D, Bethlehem in girls A, Greenwich in girls B, John Jay Cross River in girls C, Ithaca in girls D, Warwick Valley in girls E and Pearl River in girls F. The girls Varsity D race was the nail-biter of the day as Ithaca (84) edged Guilderland (86), and Tappan Zee (87).

   More cross country: Freshman Brooke Rauber of the host school won the girls small-school race in 17:49.5 for five kilometers at the Tully Invitational.

RoadToSyracuse.com football site

    • At the Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake Invitational, Saratoga junior Shea Weilbaker covered 4.9 kilometers in 14:57.66 to edge the host Spartans' Tyler Berg (15:02.97) and Aidan Gillooley (15:09.96) in the day's top race.

    • The Shenendehowa girls won the championship division of the Brown Northeast Invitational in Rhode Island.

   Gymnastics: The topic of mixed competition came up last week when Newsday reported that two Long Island boys were turned down in their bid to participate on girls gymnastics teams this season.

   Timing being everything, I happened to notice the results of a four-team meet won Saturday by Fairport included male competitor Zachary Roose winning the vault with a score of 9.625, the day's high score in any event.

   Football: I missed the original story about a month a ago that Yonkers High had given up on its football season after a 37-0 loss against Palisade Prep. Officially, the team stayed together two more weeks but forfeited those games before ending its season due to a lack of players.

   The list of problems facing the school district in general is lengthy, and football legitimately faces the possibility of becoming obsolete in the face of sub-par facilities and the gutting of feeder teams within the district.

   Last week, Josh Thomson of The Journal News floated five suggestions for tackling the problems.

   The obvious short-term remedy is to merge the 200 or so players spread across eight schools into two locations, which would seemingly afford them the ability to field varsity, JV and modified teams at each.