Pittsford Mendon's Sam Lawler placed 2nd at regionals to qualify for Nike Cross Nationals

Pittsford Mendon senior Sam Lawler almost swept to an unprecedented four-for-four Saturday, but his second-place finish in the Nike Cross Nationals New York qualifier was plenty good enough to extend his season one last week.

“I’m happy I qualified,” he said, “but disappointed for my team.”

Fayetteville-Manlius junior Peyton Geehrer edged Lawler by eight seconds on Bowdoin Park’s 3.1-mile cross country course in the town of Poughkeepsie, Dutchess County. Lawler’s time of 15 minutes, 55.4 seconds easily qualified him for Nike’s national race in Portland, Oregon, on Dec. 7.

Lawler and senior Jimmy Smith (54th, 17:17.7) helped Mendon, running as the Vikings XC club, to a 10th-place team finish. “We’ve had some sickness on our team this week,” he said, “I’m actually coming off a cold, too.”

Lawler had won his last three races — class B sectionals, B states and Federations. At states he was 9 1/2 seconds faster than Geehrer, with a 15:57.2 time, albeit in separate races. Geehrer was second in the Class A race in Plattsburgh. F-M did not race Federations.

“My plan was to race pretty much the same as last week. Get out well and push the downhill. I pushed the uphill a little more, but Peyton got ahead of me and basically held it the rest of the way.”

Lawler is the fourth Section V boy to be a Nike regional runner-up in the 13 years of the event. His older brother, Nathan, was second in 2016, Rush-Henrietta’s Mickey Burke second in 2012 and Honeoye Falls-Lima’s Alex Deir second in 2009. Sam’s time is fourth-best all-time for Section V, behind Irondequoit’s Josh Dyrland in 2013 (15:42.6), Nathan in 2016 (15:44.4) and Burke in 2012 (15.52.4).

Irondequoit’s Candace Tytler was 18th in 19:13.1, the first top 20 finish by a Section V sophomore girl since Amanda Vestri’s 18th as a freshman for Webster Thomas in 2014.

Cross Country

NXN NY Regionals

Thirteenth annual Nike Cross Nationals New York State Regional Cross Country qualifying races for national championship Dec. 7, held on the 5K (3.1-mile) Bowdoin Park open loop course in the town of Poughkeepsie, Dutchess County. Top two teams, top five individuals not on qualifying teams qualify for national race in Portland, Oregon. Third- and fourth-place teams and additional individuals may be chosen Sunday as at-large qualifiers by a national selection panel.

BOYS

Teams (26): 1. Fayetteville-Manlius-Sec. III 74, 2. Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake-II 106. Rochester area 10. Pittsford Mendon 258, 22. Alfred-Almond/Arkport/Canaseraga) 598.

Individuals (205 finishers): 1. Peyton Geehrer (Fayetteville-Manlius-III) 15:47.1. Rochester-area finishers: 2. Sam Lawler (Pittsford Mendon) 15:55.4, 38. Jeremiah Ford (Alfred-Almond/Arkport/Canaseraga) 17:03.3, 54. Jimmy Smith (Pittsford Mendon) 17:17.7, 59. Kaelen Ruder (Fairport) 17:21.1, 63. Andrew Cox (Pittsford Mendon) 17:25.4, 75. Nick Dauphinee (Irondequoit) 17:34.0, 90. Evan Hackett (Pittsford Mendon) 17:47.5, 115. Nathan Trumble (Pittsford Mendon) 18:06.4, 161. Pierce Young (Alfred-Almond/Arkport/Canaseraga) 18:53.4, 163. Colby Schenkel (Pittsford Mendon) 18:56.9, 169. Dominic Staub (Alfred-Almond/Arkport/Canaseraga) 19:06.7, 175. Logan Whittall (Alfred-Almond/Arkport/Canaseraga) 19:162, 178. Micah Ford (Alfred-Almond/Arkport/Canaseraga) 19:17.8, 184. Dylan Cannon (Alfred-Almond/Arkport/Canaseraga) 9:39.9, 190. Cameron Williams (Alfred-Almond/Arkport/Canaseraga) 19:33.7.

GIRLS

Teams (19): 1. Fayetteville-Manlius-III 47, 2. Saratoga Springs-II 49. Rochester area: None.

Individuals (167 finishers): 1. Katelyn Tuohy (North Rockland-1) 17:06.6. Rochester-area finishers: 19. Candace Tytler (Irondequoit) 19:13.1, 31. Annalee Capuano (Irondequoit) 19:34.4, 58. McKenna Arguien (Churchville-Chili) 20:22.5. Complete results on-line at www.leonetiming.com

Foot Locker Regionals

Foot Locker Northeast Regional cross country qualifying races on the 5K (3.1-mile) Van Cortlandt Park course in the Bronx. Top 10 individuals qualify for national championship Dec. 14 in San Diego, Cal. State team medals to top five in each of the 11 participating states, Washington, D.C. and children of military personnel living overseas. Overall medals to top 24.