The last time Aisling Cuffe led a race in the backhills, she was surrounded by a trio of veteran upperclassman in the Foot Locker Northeast Regionals.
In that race, the 15-year old Cuffe (Photo, right, by Tim Fulton) was out-kicked and finished third, good enough to qualify for her first ever Foot Locker national meet. Almost a year later and wiser at the Manhattan Invitational, Cuffe, now a junior, found herself in a similar predicament. In pursuit of her lead on the backhills were three teammates from top-ranked Fayetteville-Manilus, seniors Hannah Luber and Molly Malone, and junior Courtney Chapman.
This time around, only the result changed.
On Saturday, Cuffe ran alone for the second half of the Girls Eastern States Championships and broke tape at 14:03.28. It was a personal best by more than 30 seconds, but still fell short of her expectations.
"I was hoping to break 14 minutes and possibly go for the course record," Cuffe said. "I wasn’t pushed too hard in the last half of the race. Maybe if I was I would have gotten it."
20 seconds back a swarm of F-M Hornets buzzed by in so slim a spread that one risked missing them entirely if they looked away. Led by Luber (14:26.16), Chapman (14:26.73), Malone (14:37.70), freshman Jillian Fanning (14:39.79) and senior Mackenzie Carter (14:46.80), the three-time dedending national champions finished 2-3-4-5-8 and won easily with 22 points. They are currently the nation's second ranked team this year, according to MileSplit's most recent Fab-15 National Team Rankings.
"This is a starting point for the rest of the season," said head coach Bill Aris. "We've got work to do to get ready for the end game."
Addressing questions about F-M's (Photo, left, by Don Rich) notable absence from last week's McQuaid Invitational, a meet that Saugus High School (CA.), the nation's top-ranked program attended, Aris called suggestions that he avoided the meet "absurd."
"We don't duck anybody, as evidenced by the fact that we're here," Aris said. Of the entire girls field competing in the Manhattan Invitational, two were ranked in the top-10 nationally, including #4 Saratoga. Saratoga finished a distant second to F-M, with 80 points.
