Nicole Blood wins Northeast Footlocker

As a side note to the footlocker south- only 5 girls in the history of mcalpine have ran faster than the 10th place (11th really) ran today. The 10th place girl would have won last year. Pretty strong contention going to SD

Some observations:

Girls' race was insane. Big heartbreak was senior Kara McKenna getting run down by freshman teammate Shelby Greany with 50 meters to go--with Greany getting the final trip to San Diego. McKenna was nowhere to be found afterwards and was noticeably absent at the awards ceremony. Greany is a very tough, muscled little sparkplug of a runner.

Nicole Blood looked great winning, not tired at all. Her family was there and seemed very nice, down to earth. I heard her mother say, "This feels good." A few teenage girls asked Nicole for an autograph and asked her to pose for a photo with their cross-country team and she happily obliged. She seems a gracious young lady. Blood, Davidson, Ferguson and Lane were asked to link arms and pose together for a photo by the Footlocker media folk. Blood and Ferguson looked uncomfortable about it and were on the far ends of the line of four. The girls quickly separated afterwards.

Aislinn Ryan is absolutely beautiful in person...very striking blue eyes, dark hair and fair skin. Photos do not do her justice at all. She is tall and slender. She did a cool-down jog afterwards with her boyfriend.

Saw Saratoga coach Art Kranick and Bob Lane --coach of Nicole and Caitlin alias "Fast Lane." Lane seems very friendly with other cross-country runners and teams. Kranick kept to himself. Just an observation.

Briana J ran well and her mother talked about how she had "stepped back" for a year or two after doing all those races as an 11 and 12-year-old, and that now she was enjoying the team atmosphere of high school running. This kid seems self-driven and not pushed at all--the mother seemed very easygoing.

Liz Costello of PA was very impressive in her first season ever of cross-country running. She placed sixth. Her coach said she played soccer in the fall until this, her senior year, when he finally convinced her to switch to cross country. She won a state championship and a trip to Footlocker Nationals.

Liz Deir of NY who placed 8th had a huge surprised smile on her face... she was not one of the favorites... it was wonderful to see this kid's amazement at her own finish. It epitomized what the day is all about--achieving a dream!

I was there today.... wrote:

Aislinn Ryan is absolutely beautiful in person...very striking blue eyes, dark hair and fair skin. Photos do not do her justice at all. She is tall and slender. She did a cool-down jog afterwards with her boyfriend.

Haha, I believe that was her brother, brother/boyfriend, same thing

Nicole Blood has always been a class act...her momma raised her right! As for the rest of your statement you couldn't be more off base. Nicole and Lindsey remain friends and both girls would be uncomfortable reading your little internet spiel.

Can we please get off the Aislinn Ryan physical appearance topic. She's a good runner can we talk about the race she ran not the fact that some psycho dude over the internet finds her attractive. The people who made comments about her being ugly were out of line but your comments are scary!

Good grief the man just had one of his runners attacked in the school parking lot by an online stalker. After the above comment about Aislinn Ryan, Kranick is probably wise to stay away from you (and more importantly keep you away from his girls)!

What happened to Murdock? He was up in the lead pack going over the bridge. Then he dnf'd

Uaually, at NE, 18:30 will qualifym this year it was 19th. Funny, but at States and Feds (NY) times seemed slower than they should be.

Also, the Kranicks are nice people, who care about their runners.

I was there today.... wrote:

Some observations:

Liz Costello of PA was very impressive in her first season ever of cross-country running. She placed sixth. Her coach said she played soccer in the fall until this, her senior year, when he finally convinced her to switch to cross country. She won a state championship and a trip to Footlocker Nationals.

It should be noted how much tougher the Midwest Regional was for depth. Liz Costello was a distant third 7 days ago in Kettering Ohio. Kellee Lemcke who was the place in front of her was only the 23rd best runner in the midwest. Bridget Franek who ran alone the entire way in Kettering could only manage a 5th in the Midwest.

I was there today.... wrote:

Big heartbreak was senior Kara McKenna getting run down by freshman teammate Shelby Greany with 50 meters to go--with Greany getting the final trip to San Diego. McKenna was nowhere to be found afterwards...

Greany has been beating McKenna, since she was in 7th grade, it's not like it was a big upset or that she stole it from McKenna.

"As for the rest of your statement you couldn't be more off base. Nicole and Lindsey remain friends and both girls would be uncomfortable reading your little internet spiel."

Your statement couldn't be more off.

The Saratoga Cross Country team isn't allowed to hang out or talk with their former teammates Nicole Blood and Caitlin Lane by orders of their coaches Art and Linda Kranick. Thats why "I was there today...." was right when he said they looked uncomfortable taking the photo together.

Its a shame how people allow these supposed "coaches" to rule high school kids lives. No coach has the write to tell someone who they can or cant talk with.

arthur K wrote:

"As for the rest of your statement you couldn't be more off base. Nicole and Lindsey remain friends and both girls would be uncomfortable reading your little internet spiel."

Your statement couldn't be more off.

The Saratoga Cross Country team isn't allowed to hang out or talk with their former teammates Nicole Blood and Caitlin Lane by orders of their coaches Art and Linda Kranick. Thats why "I was there today...." was right when he said they looked uncomfortable taking the photo together.

Its a shame how people allow these supposed "coaches" to rule high school kids lives. No coach has the write to tell someone who they can or cant talk with.

Lindsay and Nicole are very good friends.

Not sure why the Kranick's would be "writing" to any of their athletes when they can just speak to them in person. Of course, it is their "right" to "write" them if they wish.

nicole and lindsey are not good friends at all!

Kranicks consistanly bad mouth nicole and caitlin

Before the suburban council meet nicole and caitilin were running at SPAC and ran past art kranick who said over his walkie talkie "Two pieces of trash are running by" prob speakin to linda. Nicole and Caitilin showed up to the suburban council meet dressed in garabge bags.

Kranicks are horrible people

Wake up wrote:

It should be noted how much tougher the Midwest Regional was for depth. Liz Costello was a distant third 7 days ago in Kettering Ohio. Kellee Lemcke who was the place in front of her was only the 23rd best runner in the midwest. Bridget Franek who ran alone the entire way in Kettering could only manage a 5th in the Midwest.

If you want to use stuff like that how about Noel Bateman was ranked 6th in the state and 14th in the state meet merge but was 3rd at footlocker. NY must be incredibly deep! Another one, Ben Hall was 69th at feds (7 days earlier) and was 24th at footlocker. People can have bad races and then have a breakthrough race at the right time, using comparisons like that I could make a case for how based off of Greg Kelsey Brian Rhodes-Devey could beat A. Taye by 8 seconds, but I doubt he can.

Many times kids from the Federation Meet do not run Footlocker and some move up because of that. Noel Bateman just had a GREAT day. Ben Hall was more likely to benefit from that. Also, take into account a kid who knows he won't qualify so he/she runs in the "class" race to possibly win a medal. In other words, did anyone from the 9th,10th,11th,12th races beat Ben Hall?

I would love to see Elite Racing post merged results.

If this is true then I believe that someone should reprimand the Kranick's. This needs to be reported to the Saratoga Administration if they do not already know.

gsgsghgh wrote:

nicole and lindsey are not good friends at all!

Kranicks consistanly bad mouth nicole and caitlin

Before the suburban council meet nicole and caitilin were running at SPAC and ran past art kranick who said over his walkie talkie "Two pieces of trash are running by" prob speakin to linda. Nicole and Caitilin showed up to the suburban council meet dressed in garabge bags.

Kranicks are horrible people

Excuse me, but I am a female and was attending as a parent for one of the other (non-seeded) races.... I realize I should not have commented on Aislinn's appearance but get tired of seeing her looks bashed on this board. Nonetheless in retrospect I do agree we should not be commenting on a runner's looks, positively or negatively.

As for my other observations, that is all they are... I overheard some coaches and parents talking, did not speak to any directly, but will say that it was noticable that the four Saratoga girls seemed uncomfortable together. In retrospect, though, it was a very cold day and they just probably wanted to get out of there.

It was a great day and all of the athletes are very deserving--good to see so many parents supporting their kids!

gsgsghgh wrote:

nicole and lindsey are not good friends at all!

Kranicks consistanly bad mouth nicole and caitlin

Before the suburban council meet nicole and caitilin were running at SPAC and ran past art kranick who said over his walkie talkie "Two pieces of trash are running by" prob speakin to linda. Nicole and Caitilin showed up to the suburban council meet dressed in garabge bags.

Kranicks are horrible people

I totally agree with you...from what I've heard the Kranick's are worse then horrible people. They have tried to turn everyone in Saratoga againist Nicole and Caitlin and were very mean and degrading to them when they were their coaches. How bad is it that the adults (leading the girls track team) are telling the team they are forbidden to talk to Nicole and Caitlin and calling them garbage(I also heard the garbage bag story) and thought what wonderful girls ( Nicole and Caitlin) must be to try to make the best of a sad situation by joking about it!:):): good for them....If I lived in Saratoga I would not allow my kids anywhere near the Kranicks, and would complain and complain about them until someone listened...but from what I've heard you can't go up againist them, since their teams win- no one in the administration will listen to you. Good for Nicole and Caitlin for escaping!!!!!!!!

unfortunately I couldn't attend this year. Thank you for your observations. Hope your child ran well.

They talk badly and disrespectfully towards alot of the sections good runners.

They have persoanlly threatned my son saying "never run in saratoga again, becuase my former atheletes are police men"