Putnam Valley Cross Country Teams Enjoy Strong Season

The Tigers won four of their five dual meets, losing only to Ossining, the same team that would edge them out for the league championship by a single point. Put Valley finished fifth out of 12 teams in their section.

“I was very pleased with how the team performed overall,” said coach Jerry Zupan. “It was great to see how far they’ve come and how much they improved.”

“The girls team had five girls most of the year and they exceeded my expectations,”

This was the first year Putnam Valley had a girls team. Coach Zupan expressed a lot of pride when mentioning them, and added “We didn’t have the best finishes, but they continued to improve and they came ready to go every week.”

Three players took home post-season awards.

Jim Hertzel was awarded All-Section and All-League. Hertzel placed 33rd in the State meet this past weekend with a time of 17:00. It was his second consecutive appearance in states.

“Richie Cianelli and Logan Bagarozy don’t get mentioned a lot but they were great for us,” said Zupan. “They made it so we had three strong lead runners.” Both Cianelli and Bagarozy got All-League. First year runner Tom Faraone got All-League Honorable Mention.

Putnam Valley does not graduate anyone this year, which has both the runners and coach Zupan excited for the future.

“The kids are already excited about next year, they all want to be better next year. I’m excited too,” said Zupan. “We want to win leagues and make a run at the section title. If everybody works hard this off season and we come back focused we have a great shot at doing just that.”