Leading off today: Fayetteville-Manlius put on a very impressive show today in defending its girls title at the fourth annual Nike Team Nationals cross country meet in Portland, Ore.

   F-M placed three finishers in the top 10 and all seven of its runners in the top 49 and racked up 83 points to 171 for Saugus (Calif.) and 194 for Saratoga. The other two New York squads, Burnt Hills and Warwick Valley, finished fifth and 11th, respectively.

   Courtney Chapman paced F-M with an eighth-place finish, one spot ahead of teammate Hannah Luber. Mackenzie Carter was 10th.

   The meet was held in bone-chilling cold, with light snow in the air. The 2½-loop course was muddy but managable despite two large pools of standing water on the course and a stiff crosswind.

   New York teams — Saratoga (2004), Hilton (2005) and F-M — have won all four girls titles in NTN history.

   Naperville, Ill., scored 125 points to win a close boys race over Los Alamos, N.M., (127) and Albuqerque (N.M.) Academy (134). Warwick Valley was 11th and Shenendehowa 14th.

   Junior Madelyn Morgan of Mountain Brook, Ala., was the top girls finisher, covering 5,000 meters in 18:54.5. Samantha Roecker of Burnt Hills was third and Hannah Davidson of Saratoga fourth. Senior Chris Derrick of Naperville, Ill., topped the boys field in 15:39.8.

   Monticello milestone: Monticello boys basketball coach Dick O'Neill, 61, posted his 400th career victory last night and said he will retire from coaching and teaching in June.

   Monticello beat Western Wayne (Pa.), 39-34, in the semifinals of the Wallenpaupack (Pa.) tournament to open its season. O'Neill was presented with a commemorative basketball by tournament officials.

   O'Neill's record of 400-138 over 28 seasons includes 312 wins in 23 years at Monticello. He also coached five seasons at Burke Catholic in Goshen.

   Chazy players accused: Four unidentified members of the Chazy boys team are believed to be under investigation for allegedly stealing items from the souvenir shop at the National Soccer Hall of Fame in Oneonta the same weekend that their team won a NYSPHSAA championship last month.

   "This just really overshadows all of the good that has been accomplished," Chazy Superintendent Kevin Mulligan told The Press-Republican in Plattsburgh. "I am not one of those inclined to say kids will be kids. Not after 13 years

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in education, but I am certainly inclined to say kids as well as people make stupid mistakes, and there was certainly some stupid mistakes that were made here."

   The items were taken the weekend of Nov. 16-18. A faculty member overheard one of the players talking about the theft after the team returned home and informed school officials. Mulligan notified the New York State Police, who sent a trooper to the school to investigate.

   School officials have suspended the students and banned them from extra-curricular activities. "To my knowledge, police are still investigating the matter," Mulligan told the paper.

   Bath to vote on turf: Bath Haverling school district voters will go to the polls Dec. 18 to decide on two propositions, one of which is for the installation and maintenance of a turf field at a cost of up to $1 million.

   What makes it particularly interesting is the provision that the turf proposition cannot be approved unless an $18 million capital project also passes. The larger proposition includes the purchase of five nearby properties, renovation of school facilities, security enhancements and improvements to other playing fields.

   Putting the added condition on the turf field is an interesting concept and very voter-friendly. As we noted yesterday, some Nyack voters are unhappy that sports initiatives that they don't support are lumped into an overall $16.5 million proposition that also includes classroom roof repairs.

   "People have strong feelings one way or another, so we didn't want it to be extremely influential," Bath Superintendent Marion Tunney told The Courier. "And yet we also wanted it to be an option."

   Extra points: Media reports indicate that the group that controls the minor-league hockey, soccer and lacrosse franchises in Rochester owes much money to many people and businesses. Quite frankly, they deserve to lose control of the teams if for no other reason than the PAETEC Park farce. Rhinos soccer team owners have left that facility (built in a shabby neighborhood) half-finished — no suites or permanent locker rooms — for two years. The four football weekends beginning with the sectional semifinals and ending with state semis are the worst for every reporter in town each year as they try to work in a plywood- and plastic-enclosed press box.

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