Cross-country titles for VSN

Valley Stream North cross-country coaches Mike Frazer and Tim Boyens couldn’t have scripted a better outcome at last Saturday’s Section VIII championships/state qualifier meet at Bethpage State Park.

Under ideal weather conditions, North’s girls’ and boys’ teams captured Nassau Class B titles on the 5-K course. The Lady Spartans had five of the top 51 finishers in the county, led by juniors Shanice Johnson and Tara McElroy.

“It’s the first-ever county title for the girls and second for the boys in three years,” Frazer said. “It was a perfect day to run. It was cool and dry and the ground wasn’t too soft or too hard.

“Both groups work really hard and it’s pretty cool to be headed upstate with everyone,” he added. “A lot of other coaches have commented on our accomplishments.”

Both North teams will compete in the New York State meet this Saturday at Pawling at 9 a.m.

Johnson, a top sprinter in track and field, ran her personal best in the county meet, Frazer said. She crossed the line in 20-minutes, 29.3-seconds, which was good enough to place her 22nd out of 154 participants. 

Shanice is a big-time athlete with incredible range as a runner,” Frazer said of Johnson, who ran 20:52.6 at the Conference IV championships Oct. 30. “She was the first finisher in Class B.”

McElroy, who paced the team in the conference meet and finished eighth, came in just a few strides behind Johnson in the county race and 24th-overall in 20:33.4. “Tara’s our leader and captain,” Frazer said. “Her time was right there as usual. She consistently runs strong races.

Junior Victoria Ennab (20:45.0) was 30th, sophomore Sydney Cano (21:01.2) placed 38th, and seventh-grader Gabriele Andrade (21:28.9) was an impressive 51st.   

“Our top five girls all earned All-County,” Frazer said. “When North Shore moved out of Class B, we knew it would open some things for us. But for the girls to finish fourth in the entire county was amazing.”

Senior Visal Mohanan paced the boys’ team with a personal-best time of 17:27.0, which placed him 32nd in the county a week after he finished ninth in Conference IV. “He evolved as our No. 1 towards the end of the season,” Frazer said.

Junior Zachary Bugge was next for the Spartans in the county meet in a personal-best 17:47.9, which placed him 45th. Senior Joseph Rossi ran a nice race, slicing 12 seconds off his time from the previous Saturday to finish as North’s third scorer and 70th overall in 18:10.4. Junior Sam Catalano, who missed all of last season with a hip injury that required surgery, was next in 18:11.0, and junior Tom Bardabelias rounded out the top five for the Spartans in 18:22.4.

“Seaford had two kids finish before we had one,” said Frazer, “but our depth was the difference.”