Sunday, Nov. 27, 2011: F-M girls, Shaker boys win Nike Cross Nationals qualifier

   Leading off today: They didn't do so in knockout-punch fashion, but the Fayetteville-Manlius girls have earned the right to compete for their sixth straight Nike Cross Nationals championship next Saturday in Portland, Ore.

   The Hornets (43 points) and Saratoga (57) locked down the New York region's automatic berths, leaving North Shore (87) and Canandaigua (170) to hope for at-large berths. The boys race was very competitive at the top, with Shaker (78) and Fayetteville-Manlius (93) holding off Rush-Henrietta (114) and St. Anthony's (122).

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   A pair of F-M juniors took individual honors. Nick Ryan won the boys race in 15:59.1, and Jillian Fanning was the top girl in 17:47.4 over five kilometers at Bowdoin Park in Wappingers Falls.

   The F-M runners girls have been short-handed in the latter stages of the season, with 2010 NYSPHSAA champion Christie Rutledge one of the two regulars out of the lineup again Saturday. Fanning led the Hornets to a fast start off the line at Bowdoin, but unexpectedly warm weather took a toll later in the race. Still, Katie Sischo (sixth) and Hanna Smith (seventh) placed in the top 10 for the winners.

   The F-M and Shaker boys placed second and 13th, respectively, at the national meet a year ago. Though F-M won the NYSPHSAA meet two weeks ago, it's Shaker that has gained momentum of late -- including a win last week at the Federation meet as runners have returned from injuries.

   Shaker’s Mike Libruk finished second individually and Christian Delago was 10th.

   Federation champ Mary Cain of Bronxville was the third girl across the line.

   Foot Locker qualifier: Daniel Lennon (Peru), Laura Leff (West Genesee) and Alexis Panisse (Cardozo) qualified for the Foot Locker National Championships with top-10 finishes Saturday at Long Island's Sunken Meadow State Park in the Northeast Regionals.

   Incomparable Newark, N.J., junior Edward Cheserek set his seventh course record of the season, shattering a course record set 34 years ago by John Gregorek by 12 seconds in 15:20.5. Lennon was second in 15:45.4. An eighth course record would seem to be almost unthinkable: Reuben Reina's 14:36 at Balboa Park in San Diego in 1985.

   The girls winner was Angel Piccirillo of Homer City, Pa., in 18:01.4. Leff was fifth in 18:26.1 and Panisse seventh in 18:29.4. Penfield senior Leila Mantilla narrowly missed qualifying, finishing in 12th place.

   Stay classy, Akron: University of Akron football coach Rob Ianello was informed by the Ohio school's AD he was fired while he was in the car, driving to New York with his family for his mother's funeral, according to multiple reports this weekend.

   That doesn't qualify as a new low in college athletics, but it certainly earns a spot on the honorable mention list. Why Akron, a school that once hired a barely warmed-over Gerry Faust, couldn't wait a few days is beyond me.

   With four winning seasons since 2000, it's not as though people are going to be beating down the door to accept a job offer at the MAC school. The fact that Ianello, who went 2-22, was only given two seasons also isn't going to help lure top talent.

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   Ianello took the Akron job after five seasons as the wide receivers coach at Notre Dame. The reason I mention him here is that Ianello is a 1983 Archbishop Stepinac graduate. The Akron staff made some inroads in recruiting New York talent, and was typically among the first to make offers to two- and three-star talent around New York.

   Another Bergtraum loss: Chelsea Gibson’s layup with 3.5 seconds remaining gave Bishop Loughlin a 61-59 girls basketball win over Murry Bergtraum at the "Chicken" Stop the Violence Invitational on Saturday.

   Gibson finished with 13 points.

   The three-game event was a fundraiser for the Tayshana Murphy Foundation, which bears the name of the slain Bergtraum student known as "Chicken." Murphy, a Division I prospect, was shot to death in September. Loughlin is coached by Kasim Alston, Murphy’s godfather.

   The loss dropped Bergtraum, long the class of the PSAL, to 0-2 for the season. The Lady Blazers were coming off a season-opening loss to Banneker. Freshman guard Ashanae McLaughlin scored a team-high 20 points before fouling out with 6:21 left to play in the loss.

   Ex-Solvay coach dies: Al Merola, who won 210 games during a stellar coaching career, died this month at the age of 73 after battling bladder cancer. Merola coached Solvay from 1970 until his retirement in 2003, winning 17 league titles and two sectional championships.

   "Al was pretty much what Solvay stands for, what Solvay football stands for," Solvay AD John Dippold told The Post-Standard. "He was an incredible guy to everybody. He affected, many, many lives. I played for Al. I coached with Al. I would not be where I am without Al Merola."

   Pound the message home: Both The Buffalo News and Newsday had major takeouts Sunday on the subject of concussions in high school sports.

   Newsday said Long Island's 116 varsity football teams are on track to putting new policies and safeguards into place to comply with a state law signed by Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo in September. A study provided to the National Federation of State Athletic Associations Sports Medicine Advisory Committee reported that concussions accounted for more than 20 percent of all high school football injuries in the country last year.

   Sen. Charles Schumer has proposed federal legislation requiring improved safety standards for football helmets used in high school and youth leagues.

   Extra points: a lack of experienced players has prompted Aquinas to drop varsity hockey for the upcoming season, school officials confirmed this week. With a projected roster of just one junior and no seniors the little Irish will instead play against area junior varsity teams as well as in some USA hockey tournaments. Aquinas, which owns 17 Section 5 titles, won New York State Public High School Athletic Association Division II championships in 1998 and '99 but has struggled at times in recent seasons.

   Dover, a fair-sized Class B school, will not field boys or girls varsity basketball teams this winter, The Poughkeepsie Journal reported last week. Low turnouts and the lack of experience were cited as factors.