T-burg boys cross country off and running with younger team

Tompkins County has been home to plenty of strong cross country programs in recent memory. Prime among them is the Trumansburg boys cross country team, as evidenced by their Section IV Class D titles in 2021 and 2023. This season, they’ll look to find even more success with a younger team.

The Blue Raiders will look a little different from last year’s championship winners. A trio of runners graduated, while six newcomers join the squad, including four freshmen. Head coach Neil Clifford sees a fine balance between those who have experience and those who are still new to the sport.

“We have a pretty large team and a lot of new kids this year,” Clifford said. “There will be a lot of development. I feel like I’ve got a split screen in that way. Half my team is sort of focused on the running aspect, and the other part I’m really cultivating the developmental piece.”

Clifford doesn’t feel as if the Blue Raiders are under any pressure to defend their sectional title. Instead, the focus has been more towards carrying on the program’s strong legacy.

“I think my upperclassmen are starting to realize that the program is more than just about this year or last year,” Clifford said. “[It’s] that there’s a legacy here, and so it’s not so much about defending the title as [it is] continuing the legacy of runners who ran back in the ‘90s for us and who continue to check in on the program and follow the program and follow MileSplit. It’s a way for them to kind of zoom out and go, ‘Oh, wait a second. It’s not just that I’m part of this team. I’m part of a much larger community, and I want to do right by that and do right by the former TBXC runners. They’re starting to kind of wrap their minds around the legacy of the program and what their place in that legacy will be.”

In terms of those upperclassmen, Nolan Scholes is one of the top runners who returns for his senior season. Scholes had some impressive postseason performances last year, including a sixth-place finish at the IAC Championships and a fourth-place mark at sectionals.

“He’s made immense progress as a runner, but I would also say that he’s progressed as a leader,” Clifford said. “He’s generally a little more of an introverted, thoughtful individual. He is very considerate, and he thinks his way through situations. He’s not a ‘rah rah’ person. He’s a behind-the-scenes person, and he looks after his teammates very quietly, without fanfare, without any expectation or maybe even public acknowledgement… He leads by example from the front. He’s a fantastic runner, but I would say he also leads from behind as well, and I couldn’t be happier about that.”

John Feenan is another key returner for the Blue Raiders. The junior finished 11th at IACs and 15th at sectionals last time out. Ever since he joined the team in 2022, he’s had one big goal in mind that he hopes to break over the next two seasons.

“He’s really, really motivated,” Clifford said. “I’d say he’s been one of my most consistent runners from a training standpoint over the course of the summer. I personally have logged a fair number of miles with him. He’s got a long-term vision, and he’s had one since he was a freshman. He’d like to own the mile record, which in our case has been around since I was in high school (Jason Treleaven at 4:24). That’s on John’s radar. He’s putting in the work, and he’s also assuming that mantle of leadership.”

Among the several newcomers, Sam McCaffrey is one of the older runners as a senior who could make an impact towards the end of the season. Sophomore Jobe Raines is coming off a great outdoor track season in the two-mile run.

As for the other returners, the trio of Zolton Lampman, Xander Vakkas and Jacob Taves will continue to make up the middle of the pack. One younger runner to be on the lookout for is Jesse Robertson. The freshman got off to a strong start this year as the team’s third-best runner in their season-opening meet, finishing ninth overall.

While the Blue Raiders hope to capture their third sectional title in four years, their season won’t solely be defined on whether or not they come out on top.

“I’m not someone who says the season is a failure if we’re not number one,” Clifford said. “I think that if that’s your only metric of success, then you’re bound to be unhappy because you’re going to have down years where you’re kind of rebuilding and  you don’t have a pool of upperclassmen to draw [from]. We have a number of different barometers for success. The championship is just one.”