Canandaigua cross country runner Kennedy Jensen didn’t know her time when she crossed the finish line, but the junior felt it was a good race having taken first place by a wide margin in a league meet against Victor, Hilton, Honeoye Falls-Lima and Eastridge on Monday.
“I was happy with the race,” Jensen said. “It’s always hard to push when you don’t have someone next to you. It felt good to get out and really run. I try to keep pushing the pace.”
It turned out that Jensen’s time of 18:20 was the fastest time run on Mendon Ponds Park’s west course in Monroe County going back to 2005. That includes Section 5 superstars such as Leila Mantilla of Penfield, Shaylyn Tuite of Pittsford Mendon and her former Canandaigua teammate Meghan McCormick.
Jensen’s strong race helped the Braves go 4-0 in the dual meets. The Victor boys also were unbeaten at the meet.
Twins Kendall and Lauren D’Amore took fifth (19:51) and sixth (19:53) respectively for Canandaigua. Teammates Dana Garbinski and Hayley Miller came in eighth (20:10) and 10th (20:22).
Canandaigua coach Matt Ward said he had the team give a full effort since they were going against Hilton and Honeoye Falls-Lima, two of the area’s top girls programs. The closest meet was against the Cougars, which the Braves won 27-28.
“We felt confident going in that the girls were ready,” he said. “The training has been going terrific. We just need to keep going, keep them healthy and look forward to more success. It’s all about being ready for the big race at the end of the year.”
Canandaigua graduated twins Meghan and Kate McCormick last year, who Ward said were two of the best runners he’s had in his 12 years running the program.
“We all knew we had to step it up,” Jensen said. “We took those measures and we’re all running excellently this year.”
The Braves’ record improved to 10-2 and 2-1 in its division. Honeoye Falls-Lima (10-1, 2-1) defeated Eastridge, Victor and Hilton; Hilton (9-2, 1-0) defeated Eastridge and Victor; and Victor (5-7, 0-4) defeated Eastridge. The Lancers fell to 4-8, 2-1.
Hannah Cole, Riley Douglas and Martha Mevorach finished second (19:07), third (19:10) and fourth (19:35) for the Cougars.
Zoe Camillaci and Haley Keene took seventh (19:54) and ninth (20:19) for the Cadets.
Blue Devil Kate Erickson finished 12th (20:31) and Lancer Vera Wojnowski finished 14th (20:41).
It’s not very often that a cross country team can take the top three spots in a race. It’s even rarer for those top three to cross the finish line simultaneously.
Canandaigua cross country runner Kennedy Jensen didn’t know her time when she crossed the finish line, but the junior felt it was a good race having taken first place by a wide margin in a league meet against Victor, Hilton, Honeoye Falls-Lima and Eastridge on Monday.
“I was happy with the race,” Jensen said. “It’s always hard to push when you don’t have someone next to you. It felt good to get out and really run. I try to keep pushing the pace.”
It turned out that Jensen’s time of 18:20 was the fastest time run on Mendon Ponds Park’s west course in Monroe County going back to 2005. That includes Section 5 superstars such as Leila Mantilla of Penfield, Shaylyn Tuite of Pittsford Mendon and her former Canandaigua teammate Meghan McCormick.
Jensen’s strong race helped the Braves go 4-0 in the dual meets. The Victor boys also were unbeaten at the meet.
Twins Kendall and Lauren D’Amore took fifth (19:51) and sixth (19:53) respectively for Canandaigua. Teammates Dana Garbinski and Hayley Miller came in eighth (20:10) and 10th (20:22).
Canandaigua coach Matt Ward said he had the team give a full effort since they were going against Hilton and Honeoye Falls-Lima, two of the area’s top girls programs. The closest meet was against the Cougars, which the Braves won 27-28.
“We felt confident going in that the girls were ready,” he said. “The training has been going terrific. We just need to keep going, keep them healthy and look forward to more success. It’s all about being ready for the big race at the end of the year.”
Canandaigua graduated twins Meghan and Kate McCormick last year, who Ward said were two of the best runners he’s had in his 12 years running the program.
“We all knew we had to step it up,” Jensen said. “We took those measures and we’re all running excellently this year.”
The Braves’ record improved to 10-2 and 2-1 in its division. Honeoye Falls-Lima (10-1, 2-1) defeated Eastridge, Victor and Hilton; Hilton (9-2, 1-0) defeated Eastridge and Victor; and Victor (5-7, 0-4) defeated Eastridge. The Lancers fell to 4-8, 2-1.
Hannah Cole, Riley Douglas and Martha Mevorach finished second (19:07), third (19:10) and fourth (19:35) for the Cougars.
Zoe Camillaci and Haley Keene took seventh (19:54) and ninth (20:19) for the Cadets.
Blue Devil Kate Erickson finished 12th (20:31) and Lancer Vera Wojnowski finished 14th (20:41).
It’s not very often that a cross country team can take the top three spots in a race. It’s even rarer for those top three to cross the finish line simultaneously.
Victor’s Luke Shanahan, George Mertens and Nathan Yost did just that, crossing the finish line side by side to help the Blue Devils go 4-0.
Though the Victor trio crossed the finish together at 16:39, race officials decided that Mertens came in first, Shanahan was second and Yost was third.
“As long as we do well as a team it doesn’t really matter which of us three takes first,” Yost said.
“We know if we go one, two, three, we win as a team,” Shanahan added.
Victor graduated last year’s front-runner MJ Erb and the trio felt that has required the team to run more as a group. Shanahan, Mertens and Yost run together at practice every day.
“We’ve done a lot of training together, so we’re pretty comfortable with each other,” Mertens said. “We know how we run so that helps us stay together.”
The Blue Devils improved to 10-2 on the season and 2-2 in their division with the wins. They edged the Cougars 27-30.
“Those three guys work hard together,” Victor coach Bob Goodell said. “They like the responsibility of trying to go one, two, three against everybody.”
Honeoye Falls-Lima (8-3, 2-1) defeated Canandaigua, Eastridge and Hilton; Hilton (6-5, 1-0) defeated Eastridge; and Canandaigua (4-8, 0-3) defeated Hilton and Eastridge. Eastridge is 1-11, 0-3.
John Lawlor, JT Paganelli, Langdon Douglas, Patrick Leo, Cole Matthews and Matt Geraci took fourth (16:46), fifth (16:54), sixth (17:00), seventh (17:22), eighth (17:26) and tenth (17:46) for the Cougars.
Senior Allen Beaujon took ninth for the Braves (17:30).
Daniel Salazar took 21st for the Cadets and Grant Pierce took 47th for the Lancers.
Every cross country team in the area will head to Genesee Valley Park for the McQuaid Invitational on Saturday.
