By TIM TAYLORTioga County Sports Report
QUEENSBURY — Owego standout Jaelyn Chrysler will make her fifth appearance at the NYSPHSAA Cross Country Championships here Saturday. The senior will be joined by four other River Hawks making repeat appearances — Abigail McHugh and Stella Palladino in the girls event, and Javan Belokur and Magavin Allen in the boys meet.
Palladino and Belokur ran in 2023 and 2024, Allen and McHugh both participated in 2022 and 2024. All four are seniors.
Chrysler is a two-time medalist, placing 13th in 2021 when the meet was held at Chenango Valley State Park and 8th in 2023 at Vernon-Verona-Sherrill.
Last year at Queensbury, Chrysler placed 41st with a time of 19:58, Palladino was 96th in 22:05.7 and McHugh was 103rd, clocking 22:33.1.
Belokur, the Section IV Class B champion the past two seasons, placed 59th (17:02.4) last year and 85th (18:32.6) in 2023. Allen came in 64th in 2024 (17:10.7).
In 2022, McHugh finished 122nd with a time of 25:09.8 and Allen was 62nd (18:52.1) in Class C in 2022.
“We have been fortunate to be able to have good representation at the state meet over the last number of years and we're very excited that we've got these four girls and three boys representing us up there this Saturday,” coach John Heath said.
The coach’s expectations for Belokur is that he just runs a good race.
“You get up to a race like that where now you're in a field with a lot of people you haven't seen before,” he said. “The good thing is they'll start in the starting box with the Vestal kids and so I think he'll have the same approach to the start of the race, to key off some of the Vestal kids to get out with. I think he's looking to be maybe top 40 in the race.
Coach Heath also likes the fact that Chrysler is coming in as a seasoned state veteran.
“This is her fifth year. She's got so much race experience at this point,” he said. “That's really what's her main advantage, is that not to say that it's just another race, but I think she knows how to get geared up for a big race like this. She doesn't maybe let the nerves get to her as much.
“My guess is that all the kids probably had more nerves going into the sectional race as far as trying to either get one of those coveted individual spots or, on the girls side, they were really maybe had some nerves because they knew that they had a good chance of winning as a team.
“I think when they get up there on Saturday, they're going to know those were coveted spots and they earned those spots, and they're going to do their best to represent those spots as well as they can.”
Chrysler wouldn’t mind returning to the medals podium, but that’s not what she’s focused on.
“Anything can happen,” she said. “I think realistically that's not really my goal. New York is one of the most competitive states for high school cross country, so I think I'll just see where I'm at in the race, and if that did happen, it would be great, but I'm not expecting it.”
Having had teammates accompany her to states every year, including the entire girls teams in 2022 and 2024, Chrysler is thankful for the program’s success.
“I am so super grateful that I'm on a team where we are really competitive and we all perform really well, so I'm super excited to go with them,” she said. “I've been with Abby and Stella before, but this is Sarah's first time, so it'll be nice to introduce her to the state meet, and it'll just be nice to compete with my teammates.”
The atmosphere surrounding a big meet like the state championships can be a little intimidating and overwhelming, but McHugh thinks her past experience will help.
“Just being around the bigger crowds at the state meet and bigger meets beforehand will probably help me just be a little calmer, on the start line at least,” she said.
Being a veteran state competitor in both cross country and track and field, Chrysler feels comfortable about the upcoming race.
“I'm feeling pretty excited and just kind of relaxed about it,” she said. “I know the environment of the state meet, how it's going to feel, and what to expect from the competition and what to expect at different points in the race, so I'm not too nervous about it.”
McHugh likes the fact she’s competing alongside some of her teammates.
“It's great knowing that they're right next to me, they're doing the same thing as me and we're all just working hard together,” she said. “That's a great feeling.”
McHugh is hoping to run her best race possible and maybe record her best time of the season in the process.
Palladino, who is also a two-time state qualifier in track and field, enjoys the state meet experience.
“It's a really cool experience, like when you take a moment to look around, you're kind of starstruck,” she said. “The top girls in the state, some of the top girls in the country, you're near and you're running against, and it's just a collective. There's a ton of people there that just love your sport, so it helps you realize why you love it and it's just such a cool, exciting experience.”
Competing alongside some of her teammates is a plus.
“I think it helps create a sense of normality,” she said. “You run with these girls at practice and at every single meet, so it helps the state meet feel less daunting, to know that there's going to be constants that you usually see there. In practice it helps create a more positive atmosphere around it. When you're alone it's kind of hard to keep the energy.
Palladino would like to end her season with a PR.
“I'm going to try to do my best,” she said. “I think this is a course that I would be able to set a personal best at, but I'm trying not to have my focus there. My main focus is just trying to do my best, but I know that this is a course and a meet that I have the ability to run my best, so hopefully that happens, but if not, I'll be happy.”
Allen plans to enjoy the experience.
“This year I just want to go and have fun and have the best race that I can have,” he said. “I know there's a lot of competition from Section IV so that'll definitely help me get through the race.
“It's because it's people that I know, so the motivation is just beat as many people from Section IV as I can and that's it.”
He’s also excited about competing with Belokur and Saunders.
“It's great,”Allen said. “Those two are great guys. They're hard-working, I trained with them all year, so it's great because that shows that the hard work paid off that we did together.
Having competed here last year, Allen noted the Queensbury course will be challenging.
“It's a hard, hard course for sure,” he said. “There's a lot of hills, a lot of steep hills. It's kind of hard because in a way, the spectators, I feel like there's not a lot of places where there's spectators. The first little bit of the race and the last little bit of the race is really where spectators are and then everything else is pretty much dead for the most part, so it's definitely hard to get that motivation there, but the hills are hard and that's where there's no spectators, so we're going to have to dig deep.”
Owego also has two newcomers this year in 8th-grader Sarah Heath and junior Levi Saunders. For that duo, coach Heath feels just qualifying for states is a goal achieved.
“With someone going up for the first time, the whole idea of traveling up to the state meet, that's a goal that I think a lot of runners have,” he said. “It's a goal that they set for themselves and then once they achieve it, to kind of remind them that we still have a job to do while they're up there. We still want to run our best.”
Sarah Heath is looking forward to the state meet experience.
“I'm a little bit nervous, but I'm still really excited to go and be able to run this big race,” she said.
The encouragement she’s been receiving from her teammate has been a plus.
“They've been really supportive, and it's kind of nice that they know what they're doing,” she said. “If there's certain things they know how to do better than me, they can show me how to do that.
“I'm going to go out there and I'm going to run the best as I can, but I'm not hoping to do anything astronomical.”
Saunders said he doesn’t really have any expectations for the state meet.
“It's my first time. I've never run so I'm really just looking to kind of see what the competition is out there and see how everyone else is, because throughout the year, you’re really only with the same 10 schools, 20 schools,” he said.
Saunders said practices are a little easier in preparation for states, but he also said he’s paying closer attention to his diet.
He likes the fact he will be competing with Belokur and Allen.
“It's a lot nicer going up with some teammates that have a lot of the same goals as you and who you've won with all season,” he said.
The girls Class B race begins at 9 a.m. and the boys Class B event starts at 11:30 a.m.
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IN PHOTO 1: Jaelyn Chrysler. IN TOP PHOTO: (L-R) Sarah Heath, Magavin Allen, Stella Palladino, Abigail McHugh, Levi Saunders, Jaelyn Chrysler. … TCSR PHOTOS.
