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H.S. CROSS COUNTRY: Raiders win Class D state title
First ever state team title for Barker athletics program
BARKER — Paul DerSarkissian is no Nostradamus, but he did see far into the future when he gathered a group of young Barker cross country runners together for a pep talk four years ago.
“Back when we were in eighth grade, coach DerSarkissian pointed out that we had a strong modified team with many solid runners,” said Raiders senior Erick Bennes.
“He said at that time that in the future, if we stuck to it, that in our junior and senior years, if we continued to work together, that we had a great opportunity to do great things — and he was right.”
DerSarkissian’s vision of great things came to fruition for Bennes and his Raiders teammates, who claimed the school’s first-ever state team title on Saturday by winning the New York State Public High School Athletic Association Class D cross country championship at SUNY Plattsburgh.
Barker recorded 66 points, beating defending champion and runner-up Beaver River by 10 points to claim the school’s first state crown.
Barker’s successful title run was led by the trio of sophomore Mike Lantinen (17:00.6), Bennes (17:05.8) and sophomore Tyler Scheving (17:07.2), who finished 20th, 22nd and 23rd overall respectively.
Other key components in the team title win were senior Ryan Lamb (33rd, 17:19.2), sophomore Jed Platt (39th, 17:25.0) and seniors David Poyfair (71st, 18:32.5) and Matt Sweeney (73rd, 18:40.4). Seton High School senior Mike Champagne won the Class D race in 15:54.
“Our gap at the state meet between runners one through five was 25 seconds. That’s what made our team successful throughout this year. It wasn’t just the fastest runners, but everyone,” Bennes said.
Bennes and Lantinen said winning Barker’s first state team championship was something they’ll be proud of the rest of their lives.
“It feels great. The first state title for our school in any sport — and our school’s been around for centuries,” said Lantinen, who said he got his start in long-distance running with coach Sharon (Budde) Lamb on the Barker modified team.
Last year’s Raiders cross country team finished second at the state meet in Plattsburgh.
“Our goal last year was to get to states and this year, our goal was to win states,” said Bennes, who hopes to study engineering next fall at a college to be determined.
“We’ve had our eyes on this since summer and we felt collectively that we had a chance. It takes hard work and diligence to win in cross country. We had our minds set on a common goal and we worked hard to achieve it.”
Lantinen said the addition of Scheving, a Catholic school transfer student, last year, also gave the program added momentum.
“We didn’t expect him to be as good as he was when he first joined the team as a freshman,” Lantinen said.
“As soon as he arrived, he made the team that much deeper and we started winning invitationals and were ranked state wide and ended up second in the state last year.”
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