IAC GIRLS CROSS COUNTRY: NV'S RIEGEL, SVEC'S O'CONNELL LEAD THEIR TEAMS IN SEASON OPENER (2019-09-10)

BY TIM TAYLOR
Valley Sports Report
CANDOR — Newark Valley's Renee Riegel and SVEC's Jenna O'Connell led their respective teams  at the season-opening at the SVEC Iron Kettle Farm XC Meet Tuesday.

The duo, 11th and 12th, respectively, at last year's race, garnered top 10 showings this time around.

Riegel was the runner-up to Dryden's Emily Miller, clocking 23:19 to edge Edison's Riley Vincent  by one second. Miller, nipped at the wire last year by NV's Marissa Silba (now running in college), ran away from the field early in this race and posted a time of 21:35.

O'Connell crossed the finish line fifth with a time of 25:21, edging NV's Brianna Brigham, who posted the same time.

The Eagles' Erin Bruttomesso improved 10 spots from last year, placing seventh with a time of 26:07.

Dryden won a tight team battle with 48 points while NV was second with 53 Edison took third with 55 and SVEC was fourth with 61. Tioga, which had just two entrants, scored 100 points.

Rounding out the Cardinals' scoring were Sarah Raymond who placed 10th in 27:27, Charlotte Dunn (16th, 30:29), and Monica Escalante (19th, 32:12). Rosie Hines was a non-scoring competitor for NV (23rd, 36:18). 

"We lost four seniors last year. We're a very, very new team, a young team, a lot of kids who now are being put in a position of having to run and be competitive," said NV head coach Eric D'Arcy. "They're going to get better as the season goes along. Definitely saw some good things from them. We're excited. Their goals are a little different than the boys' goals at this point. They ended up second out of five teams today, so that's a good showing at this point in the year."

SVEC's remaining scorers were Olivia Secondo (13th, 28:42), Mya Marsh (14th, 28:55) and Olivia Bennett (22nd, 34:31).

"We have a full girls team," said SVEC co-head coach John Everett. "We have one senior, Erin from Candor. 

"The exciting thing is we've got a pretty good-sized modified team, so that we have kids coming up in the pipeline. We're excited about Olivia Secondo. This is her first year on varsity as a ninth grader and she did a good job today. It's a work in progress, but it's getting better every year."

Mariah Nichols placed 15th to lead the Tioga girls with a time of 29:56 and Nicole Deboer took 24th in 38:47.

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IN PHOTO: Newark Valley's Renee Riegel (L) and SVEC's Jenna O'Connor. ... PHOTOS BY TIM TAYLOR