Putnam Valley Takes 10th at County Championships

PUTNAM VALLEY—The Putnam Valley High girls and boys cross country teams ran in the Northern County Championships at Lakeside Park in Pawling Saturday. The boys placed 10th out of 12 teams, the girls finished ninth out of 10.

The Tigers are familiar with Lakeside Park; they ran it a few weeks ago for the Green Mountain Invitational. The Tigers boys placed sixth out of 12 teams in that event, this Saturday was not as good. “Not what I would have liked as a team,” said coach Jerry Zupan. “I expected to do better than we did.”

For the boys, Jim Hertzel finished 20th in 18:25, Richie Cianelli placed 31st with a time of 19:01, Logan Bagarozy finished 36th in 19:14, Tom Faraone finished 62nd in 20:27, Austin Levesque finished 71st in 20:56 and Robert Tendy placed 77th in 21:30.

“I was very excited to see the girls run well,” said Zupan. “Their place doesn’t show how well they ran as a team.”

Siovhan Divernieri paced the girls team, finishing 47th with a time of 26:32, Casey Leake wasn’t far behind, placing 49th in 26:59, Audrey Malek went 54th in 28:02, Shelly Sperling finished 58th at 29:36 and Amanda Hefner went 66th in 35:51.

“Right now we are concentrating on sectionals,” said Zupan. “We are seeing what we can do as a team. I know they all have a lot left in them.”

Zupan will see just how much they have left this weekend when Bowdoin Park hosts the sectional championships.