CHENANGO FORKS, N.Y. - Tioga's Brenden Walker will have one more race this season.
The senior took fourth overall in the Section IV, Class D race and earned himself a berth to the New York state race.
"I'm very, very excited," Walker exclaimed after the race. "It feels really nice."
Last year he was seventh but wanted to improve upon that this year.
"I wanted to get top five this year," Walker explained.
Walker ran 18:04.8, just six seconds behind winner Michael May of Southern Cayuga's 17:58.4.
He wanted to be up near the front of the pack as the race went on.
"I wanted to start strong, start with the people near the front," Walker said. "Then try and pick up speed the last 800 to 1200 meters."
Also for Tioga Gage Lubertowsicz (23:31.7) was 67th, Connor Swagler (24:02.8) was 72nd and Jacob Schweiger (24:07.4) was 73rd.
The Waverly boys' were fifth overall with 112 points. Trumansburg won with 61 while Newark Valley was second with 81 for the Section IV, Class C race.
Collin Traub led Waverly in 12th at 18:48.6. Rounding out their top were Garrett Sutryk (19:11.9) in 22nd, Andy Kinsley (19:14.2) in 23rd, Mark Kraus (19:20.5) in 27th and Randy Chandler (19:20.9) in 28th.
Waverly coach Scott Baird was pleased with his team's performance.
"The guys that had to step up did step up," he remarked. "We had great packing. The ones we needed in the front weren't as far up but we had great packing."
Trumansburg's Tyler Sutherland won the race in 17:07.6.
On the girls' side Waverly's Kaylee Uhl was one spot shy of qualifying for states.
"We are disappointed," Baird said. "We worked so hard and with Kaylee coming up short by one spot for the second year in a row is tough."
Uhl was 11th overall in 21:56.3.
Also for the Wolverines Kelsey Frank (22:29.9) was 17th, Katelyn Moore (23:15.9) was 28th, Kylene Chandler (24:40.4) was 46th, Sidney Shaffer (26:53.3) was 61st and Taylor Knight (27:03.6) was 63rd.
Waverly was sixth overall with 140 points while Newark Valley won with 25 while Edison was second with 91.
"We weren't close to that last year," Baird said about his girl's placing.
Overall, he was pleased with how both his teams ran.
"Everyone ran well today with the bad conditions," Baird explained. "We definitely moved closer to the top as teams."
Winning the Class C girl's race was Windsor's Maddie Zeitz in 19:34.6.
In the Class D girls', race Tioga's Emily Stansfield was 37th in 27:22.5.
