On Oct. 13, 2014, the Sachem community had a great day for our young athletes to display their running talent. Sachem East High School hosted the 23rd the Jeff Stone Memorial Cross Country Meet for our Elementary and Middle School students. These athletes participated in a one-mile race (4th-8th grade) or 400 meter dash (K-3rd).
The top three runners in each race included:
For the past four years the Jeff Stone Meet has not seen any broken records, only personal bests. With strong records being held in almost every age group it is very difficult for these young athletes to leave their mark in the Jeff Stone history books. However, this past Columbus Day, a 5th grade runner ran to victory and broke a record that was held since 1996! Erica Urbanick, from Chippewa, ran a 6:55.5 mile on Sachem East’s grueling XC course to beat the previous record by 3 seconds.
Way to go Erica! A 17-year old record has fallen. Not only was Erica’s performance outstanding, but the second place finisher in the same race, Krysta Churns, only finished .1 seconds behind Erica to make it the closest race of the day. Another notable performance came from Brendan Glasser who started off the first race of the day with a 6:01 mile. He was the closest individual to the 6-minute barrier all day. A majority of the races were very close as the 7th/8th grade boys, 7th/8th grade girls, 4th grade girls, 5th grade girls and 6th grade boys races had the top two finishers within 3 seconds of one another.
The Robert McNeil Trophy is awarded to the top Elementary school that wins the most races. Not only did Chippewa win the most races, but they had the largest amount of Elementary athletes participate (28). Both Waverly and Hiawatha managed to win a race; however, they were no match for Chippewa’s two victories. Congratulations Chippewa for winning the Robert McNeil Trophy.
The Tom Toscano Trophy is awarded to the middle school with the most finishers under 9 minutes. A total of 28 runners across all four middle schools in 7th and 8th grade finished the Jeff Stone Memorial Run in less than 9 minutes. Sagamore had the highest total with 16 of their runners finishing under the 9-minute mark. Sagamore is two-time repeating champion of the Tom Toscano Trophy. Congratulations Sagamore.
The Jeff Stone event is a fundraiser for the Jeff Stone Memorial Scholarship, alongside the K-3 Charles Johnson Fun Run dedicated to the Charles Johnson Memorial Scholarship. Congratulations to all of the finishers, and thanks to all who assisted in promoting or volunteering for the event.