Before she heads off to North Carolina State University, Liverpool senior Jenna Schulz still has one more high school cross country race to run – the biggest one of all.
Schulz is on her way to Portland, Oregon for next weekend’s Nike Cross Nationals after a third-place individual finish at Saturday’s Nike New York-Northeast Regional championships at Bowdoin Park in Wappingers Falls.
On the 3.1-mile Bowdoin Park course, Schulz tore to a time of 18 minutes, 1.7 seconds. Only North Rockland’s Katelyn Tuohy, who won in 17:07.6, and Schulz’s future N.C. State teammate, Fayetteville-Manlius’ Claire Walters (17:27.1), finished ahead of her.
More impressive was the fact that Schulz beat two other local stars – F-M’s Hannah Kaercher, who got fourth place in 18:14.7, and Tully’s four-time state Class D champion, Brooke Rauber, who was fifth in 18:26.8.
Not only did Schulz run well, she also helped push Liverpool (running as LPXC) to a fourth-place team finish with 164 points. F-M (47 points) edged Saratoga Springs (49 points) for the top spot as North Rockland finished third.
Sydney Carlson finished 31st among team runners (50th overall) in 20:10.7, while Gabby McCarthy got 34th in the team standings in 20:16.4. Eva Woodworth, in 20:44.2, was two spots ahead of Kara Nash (20:52.1) as Charlotte Warner posted 21:08.1 and Kaleigh Buck finished in 21:42.9.
Also running in the girls regional race, Cicero-North Syracuse freshman Kate Putman had a strong race, making her way to 38th place in a clocking of 19:51.2.
The boys edition of the New York/Northeast Regionals at Bowdoin Park had Liverpool on hand, too, making its way to sixth place with 225 points as F-M won here, too, both on the team side and with Peyton Geehrer as the individual champion in 15:47.1.
Two Warriors runners found their way to the individual top 20, with Jake McGowan getting 15th place in a time of 16:37.2 and Ryan Cartwright just behind, earning 17th place in 16:37.5.
Ryan Hagan finished in 17:34.8, two spots ahead of Carter Rodriguez, who posted 17:35.9. Ethan Glashauser had a time of 17:54.8, ahead of Warriors teammates Charles Praschunus (18:09.8) and Jake Sherlock (18:22.9).
Schulz’s appearance in the Nike Nationals marks a return to Portland, where she took 22nd place in the 2018 edition.
