Leading off today: Fayetteville-Manlius put on a very impressive show today in defending its girls title at the fourth annual Nike Team Nationals cross country meet in Portland, Ore.
F-M placed three finishers in the top 10 and all seven of its runners in the top 49 and racked up 83 points to 171 for Saugus (Calif.) and 194 for Saratoga. The other two New York squads, Burnt Hills and Warwick Valley, finished fifth and 11th, respectively.
Courtney Chapman paced F-M with an eighth-place finish, one spot ahead of teammate Hannah Luber. Mackenzie Carter was 10th.
The meet was held in bone-chilling cold, with light snow in the air. The 2½-loop course was muddy but managable despite two large pools of standing water on the course and a stiff crosswind.
New York teams Saratoga (2004), Hilton (2005) and F-M have won all four girls titles in NTN history.
Naperville, Ill., scored 125 points to win a close boys race over Los Alamos, N.M., (127) and Albuqerque (N.M.) Academy (134). Warwick Valley was 11th and Shenendehowa 14th.
Junior Madelyn Morgan of Mountain Brook, Ala., was the top girls finisher, covering 5,000 meters in 18:54.5. Samantha Roecker of Burnt Hills was third and Hannah Davidson of Saratoga fourth. Senior Chris Derrick of Naperville, Ill., topped the boys field in 15:39.8.
Monticello milestone: Monticello boys basketball coach Dick O'Neill, 61, posted his 400th career victory last night and said he will retire from coaching and teaching in June.
Monticello beat Western Wayne (Pa.), 39-34, in the semifinals of the Wallenpaupack (Pa.) tournament to open its season. O'Neill was presented with a commemorative basketball by tournament officials.
O'Neill's record of 400-138 over 28 seasons includes 312 wins in 23 years at Monticello. He also coached five seasons at Burke Catholic in Goshen.
Chazy players accused: Four unidentified members of the Chazy boys team are believed to be under investigation for allegedly stealing items from the souvenir shop at the National Soccer Hall of Fame in Oneonta the same weekend that their team won a NYSPHSAA championship last month.
"This just really overshadows all of the good that has been accomplished," Chazy Superintendent Kevin Mulligan told The Press-Republican in Plattsburgh. "I am not one of those inclined to say kids will be kids. Not after 13 years