T-burg boys cross-country wins sectionals

For the first time since 2014, the Trumansburg boys cross-country team is heading to the State Championship. The Blue Raiders claimed the Section IV Class D title on Thursday with seven runners on the team placing in the top 15. While only the top five scores contribute to a team’s score, having two additional runners in the top 15 exemplifies how well-balanced Trumansburg is.

Outside of one season when the team competed at the Class C level, the Blue Raiders have placed second at every Section IV Championship since winning that 2014 title. After last season didn’t have a true Section IV or State Championship, this one was a meaningful one for the Blue Raiders.

The team was led by senior three-sport athlete Lucas Taves, who placed fifth in the field of 75 with a time of 18:17 at Chenango Valley. The senior discussed his run and the team’s victory.

“It’s been a few years [of] racing at that state park, and it really came down to just making sure I hit my stride,” Taves said. “Going into the last race, we did a lot of team preparation, looking through the course and looking through what we need to do to win. Then, it’s executing. I felt really confident with our team going into that and that drove all of us to run really well.”

There have been multiple top finishers for the Blue Raiders this season, and this last race was Taves’ turn. Elijah Schechter and Sebastian Cole have also led the pack at points this season, and Taves discussed what that says about the team.

“It really shows the kind of culture that coach [Neil Clifford] has brought to the cross-country team,” Taves said. “It doesn’t matter if you’re first or last. … Whether you’re five or one, you’re important. It just shows the next-man-up mentality. We battled some injuries throughout the year, and it set us back in some other races. But this, it just really shows how we respond as a team and the selflessness of our program here in Trumansburg.”

The sectional victory came for Trumansburg after they came up just short against Class C champions Lansing at the IAC Championships two weeks ago. They successfully retooled after the IAC meet and came out strong in Chenango Valley.

“I think some of it was definitely frustrations from the IAC meet,” Taves said. “We ran pretty poorly as a team. I think it was just building up and taking the time to sit down and reflect on getting one last shot for our seniors. We’ve come close to a sectional title the last few years, and I think it’s just everyone kind of bearing down and saying, ‘Let’s go do this and let’s race well for each other.’”

Fortunately for Trumansburg, Section IV is hosting the State Championship this year at the same course they just ran for sectionals. That gives Trumansburg a decent advantage over the teams they’ll be competing with on Saturday.

“It definitely gives us a chance to look back on this race and say, ‘Where can I run faster?’” Taves said. “Just going through each turn, each hill and each downhill and finding where we can improve our time by two, three, four seconds — that could be the difference [between] an eighth-place finish and a third-place finish. We’re really looking for a top-five finish, which would cap off a very fun and exciting year for us.”

Taves expanded on what that top-five finish would mean to him in his final season at Trumansburg.

“It would mean the world,” he said. “We just looked back on it and we were ranked 13th earlier this year. Just to come in and be able to get a top-five finish would truly mean a lot, more to me as a senior being seconds away from going to a state meet to now, with a chance to prove what we have here.”

There were three sophomores that finished in the top-15 for Trumansburg at sectionals, and they were Casey Wright, Zayne Howley and Adam Arco. A performance like that has Taves confident in the Blue Raiders after he and the other seniors on the team move on.

“I think that the cross-country team’s future is bright,” he said. “We have a bunch of sophomores this year and a bunch of JV runners who are looking really, really strong. They should turn into some really good varsity runners. I have no doubt that when I come back in a few years that they’ll be competing for a state title and be right in the mix as well.”

Tompkins County will be represented well at the State Championships on Saturday. The Lansing boys team and Lansing freshman Kathleen Sullivan will be running at the Class C level with the Trumansburg boys racing in Class D. Ithaca will be sending six runners for the Class AA races: Laila Lima, Alice Burke, Claire Colvin, Silas Richardson, Daniel Sawel and Everett Shaw.