Le Roy Cross Country: Off & Running

The Le Roy Cross Country teams opened their season on Tuesday, September 14th against Wayland-Cohocton and Kendall. Le Roy has the largest boys team in recent history with 24 boys on roster.

Included on the team is sophomore captain Jake Sullivan who led the team last year in every race. Following right behind Sullivan is freshman Tyler Murray, who as an 8th grader finished 2nd in almost every junior high cross country race and first in every spring track meet. Junior Captain Jim Schwab joins fellow Juniors Josh Lang and Brandon Weig to add quality veteran leadership to the team. Sophomore Pat O'Halloran leads a talented group of young runners competing weekly for the final varsity positions. That group includes Tyler Hall, Jack Bennett, Ed Englerth, Riley Carhart, Dan Washburn and several other young runners pushing trying to earn a spot on varsity for the weekly invitationals.

The girls' team is led by junior stand out Janessa Shearer. Janessa is a 2003 All-Star and dominated the league last year in both Cross Country and Winter Track. One of Janessa's main goals is to capture another League All-Star and use the momentum of that race to push her in the Sectional Championships in November. Behind Janessa is a close group featuring a mix of young and veteran girls, including sophomores Katie Hall and Becky Wetzel, junior Chelsea Baker and senior Sarah Wetzel.

At Tuesday's meet, both the boys and girls' teams defeated Way-Co and Kendall by a solid margin. Both teams defeated Kendal 15-50. The boys won easily against Way-Co 17-44 and the girls' team won a close meet 27-28.

The boys were led by Jake Sullivan and Tyler Murray. Jim Schwab held off a pack of runners that were trying to catch him for 2 full miles. Coach Jay Laitenberger said, "Each time I saw Jim, there was a huge pack right on his heals trying to catch him - and there was Jim - holding them off the entire way." Patrick O'Halloran and Brandon Weig scored the final spots to ensure the victories.

In the girls race, Janessa Shearer opened with a 2nd place overall finish, but the real win over Way-Co came when the pack of Katie Hall, Chelsea Baker, Becky and Sarah Wetzel raced their way ahead of an equally sized pack of Way-Co girls.

Both teams have high expectations for this season and with limited seniors in the top positions, these teams should be chasing those same high expectations for the next few years.