*By Zack Schloss*

After a rough start to the year for both the boys and girls cross country teams, each rebounded and capped off the season by placing fourth and tenth, respectively, at the state championships.

Senior Andrew Palmer, who is attending the University of Syracuse next year, won a state championship.

“Andrew is definitely the top male athlete I’ve ever coached,” says Stephen Hayes, who has coached at Whitman for 10 years.

Palmer’s state title was the second of his high school career, as he also won it in 2007.

“This year I expected to win so it was just another race,” says Palmer, who hasn’t won a race by less than 15 seconds all year long.

The boys and girls seasons ran very different courses.  The boys team entered the year returning few varsity runners, and Hayes says he didn’t know what to expect.

“I really wasn’t sure how they were going to do because it was pretty much guys who had never run on varsity before,” he says.  “I didn’t know how they would respond to being on varsity. At first I was worried because a lot of our meets didn’t go the way I planned, but as the season went on they performed better and better.”

Palmer has been on some strong teams, but says this is the best one he’s run for.

“The race at states was a good one,” he says.  “We weren’t supposed to finish in the top 10, and we came in fourth.”

Meanwhile, Hayes had high expectations for the girls this year.  Returning just about every varsity runner from 2008, the team seemed poised to improve on last year’s fourth place finish at states.

“We returned just about everyone on girls, and I was just so excited about the season,” Hayes says.  “But early on we had some injuries and some sickness that just completely turned the season around.  But we had a lot of people step up, and we had some new runners come on the team.  We essentially had three freshmen and three sophomores running varsity by the end of the year.”

Underclassmen such as sophomores Katie Seevers and Elizabeth Frank and freshmen Annie Rice, Justine Wood and Caroline Elmendorf stepped up and surprised by contributing significantly to the team’s success.

Star sophomore Anna Ryba was hurt for states, so Hayes says a tenth place finish, given these circumstances, was impressive.

“Being the tenth best team in the state is pretty good,” Hayes says.  “And that’s without Anna Ryba, and she would have been in the top five, so that would have changed things tremendously.”

Given their young core, Hayes feels the girls should be in good position next year assuming they remain healthy.

The boys team, however, will lose Palmer as well as senior Brandt Silver-Korn, who placed 20^th overall at states.

But both teams have made it to states every year Hayes has coached at Whitman, and only once has either team not placed in the top ten overall during that time.

“Somehow, every year people step up and we’re able to make it to the state championship,” Hayes says.  “We hope that continues to be the case.”