Sam Roecker

Beavercreek's Taylor Ewert (OH) ran the 13th all-time fastest girls 5K at the NXN National Championships en route to a 3rd place finish in 2018.

It was a good weekend to be from Burnt Hills.

The annual Manhattan Invitational is hitting 45 year milestone, and with it comes plenty of history.

The best of NY State come together at Cornell University this weekend for the NY State Federation Championships. The best athletes from the CHSAA, PSAL, AIS, and NYSPHSAA will battle for the state championships.

Sure we realize our indoor season revolves around what goes on down here at The Armory. We also realize that some people may think we don't pay enough attention to the rest of NY state. So with that in mind, and the NY State meet fast approaching, let's take a look around the state., section by section.

There is a myriad of things that go into choosing a college, and making life decisions that can clog a teenagers mind and sometimes start a early-life crisis. But sometimes, choosing a college is as simple as this: “I just felt really comfortable,” Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake senior Sam Roecker said.

WAPPINGERS FALLS – Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake coach Shaun Zepf said his team wanted a nasty course. He said they hoped for rain and mud. They got both.

Highlights and Results from: NB Ocean State Inv. (RI), McDonald's XC Festival (VA), McQuaid Inv. (NY), Roy Griak Inv. (MN), Stanford Inv. (CA), Carlisle Inv. (PA), Jim Danner Inv. (OR), Culver Inv. (IN), Palatine Inv. (IL), LoboCat Inv. (CO), Albuquerque Academy Inv. (NM) & Midwest Meet of Champs. (OH) The best weekend yet.  That's an easy way to describe this weekend's national cross country action.  Most of the top teams in the land took part in an invitational, with some teams coming up very big.  US#5 York (IL) kicked off their season by winning the Palatine Invitational, one of the big highlights of the weekend thus far.

It's a tight-knit school, Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake High School.  The community is small, parents are involved in their kids student-athlete lives, and with a smaller student population compared to most of the other top teams in the country, this team is achieving more than many think they could.  Over the past few years few teams have dominated girls cross country like Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake. In the fall of 2007 the squad took another step forward, qualifying for Nike Team Nationals, with a fifth place finish overall at the national meet despite missing their number two runner. Many speculated that Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake would've placed second had they had their full line-up, as they finished 38 points behind runner-up Saugus (CA). Regardless, the team now looks forward, hoping to build upon their '07-'08 success with even more success.  While no one will admit it, the thought of winning the Nike Cross Nationals title has to be on their minds.  A talented trio up top with Sam Roecker, Molly Pezzulo and Meaghan Gregory gives this team a distinct advantage few others teams can match.  This is a season of hard work, challenging oneself to go above and beyond, and most of all having 40 girls coming together to strive towards the same goal.  It's something every team tries to do, but only so many actually accomplish it.  Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake will strive for greatness and how this journey ends will be something fans of the sport will watch all season long.

With the second full week of the cross country season complete and in the books, many of the top athletes around the country have now had a chance to compete in some sort of competition. Each week we'll rank the top 12 athletes in each region, and now things start to get exciting as the big meets start to crank up with the season swinging into full gear.

Every year the Northeast puts out some incredible distance talent, but this fall may be the greatest collection of distance talent seen in some time. Between Doug Smith, Brett Johnson and Solomon Haile, the boys have strong front runners, while the girls follow the lead of Foot Locker veterans Emily Lipari, Emily Jones and Shelby Greany. Come late-November and early-December the Northeast may be looking at national champions at Nike Cross Nationals and Foot Locker Nationals.

Smith runs fast 14.04 HH, DelBene runs 9:10 3200m, Sarah Palmer ties frosh NY State HJ record NEW YORK STARS THIS WEEK Madalayne Smith (Saratoga Springs) 14.04 100m HH Hannah Davidson (Saratoga) 6:46.17 2K Steeple, US#1 Sarah Palmer (Schuylerville) ties the NY State Freshmen High Jump Record at 5-8 Kristin Reese (Carmel) doubles 2:11 800m and 4:51 1600m Colby DelBene (Pawling) 9:10 3200m Troy Faulkner (Curtis) 47.72 400m Dalilah Muhammad (Cardozo) 59.84 Brian McGovern (Mt. St. Michael) 15-07 PV meet record at Loucks Suffern girls 11:59 DMR and 9:16 4x8 at Loucks Pat Dupont (Fairport) 9:13.85 3200m Jeremy Rosado (Grady) 14.43 110 hurdles in season debut Linda Hadfield (NY Mills) sets Section 3 Pole Vault Record with 11'06" winning effort. Aaron Konigsberg (Hackley) sets meet record at Loucks with 183 Javelin throw a week after throwing 199-10 at The Somers Invitational (pictured above) FOR THE FULL WEEKS HIGHLIGHTS, CLICK HERE

Eleanor Roosevelt breaks the national 4x800 record finishing second in the Championship of America. Roosevelt finished in 8:43.12, more than seven seconds faster than the 8:50.41 Boys & Girls ran in 2002. Cardozo finished fifth in 9:0146 and Boys & Girls placed 12th in 9:12.70. For HS Girls highlights and winners tables, click here

Take a look at some of the NY State Highlights from last weekendSoph star Melissa Kurzdorfer doubles up, winning both the shot and weight throw with impressive marks in both.  FULL ARTICLE HERE