The cross country teams at Friends Academy will run in the state championship meet on Saturday, Nov. 15 at Queensbury High School in Queensbury, NY.
Competing in the ‘D’ division, the girls’ team will begin racing at 10 a.m. followed by the boys’ team at 12:30 p.m.
The girls’ team enters the meet ranked No. 8 in the state in their division.
They won the Nassau County Class D title last weekend, with freshman Ariana Madeira leading the Quakers with a time of 18:53.70 — which would have won the Class C race and placed her among the top five finishers in Class B.
“Ariana is a competitor who races with fire and confidence,” cross country coach Dave Frazer says. “She really showed her mettle last week, and if she’s near somebody at the end, there’s a good chance she’s going to beat them. She’s very fast over the last quarter-mile.”
The boys’ team enters the meet ranked No. 10 in the state in their division.
They also won the Nassau County Class D title, with seventh-grader Teddy Dugan leading the way with a time of 17:11.30 — which would have placed third among Class C competitors and 10th in Class B.
“It wouldn’t do anyone any good to have Teddy racing against middle schoolers. He would beat all of them by several minutes,” Frazer says.
Teddy, in fact, has been pacing the varsity team and was the Quakers’ top finisher in the county meet by more than a minute.
“He’s been leading a boys’ team that has been training really hard, growing and learning to compete at this next level,” Frazer says. “It really takes a community to get a team to go to the next level and to stay there and that's really what we're trying to do. And we really have that great support from the community, including teachers, who have showed up to see us race this season.”
Live updates for the state championship meet can be followed in near-real-time on the New York State Public High School Athlete Association website and via MileSplit NY.
Tickets to attend the event cost $13.60 and must be purchased online.
Want a sneak preview of the course? Click here to watch a first-person POV video of the 5,000 meters the Quakers will be running.
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