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Harriers
Return to Bear Mountain for 20th Anniversary
Edition
of Rockland Alumni Cross Country Run
By Jamie Kempton
For cross-country runners, returning to Bear Mountain State
Park is a reassuring rite of autumn. As surely as the trees shed their leaves
and the sun’s warmth fades into early twilight, the harriers gravitate toward
a place where memories of youthful play and spirited competition reside.
Remember how it was? Bolting around Hessian Lake with impetuous abandon.
Charging up the ski-jump hill and coping with the jelly-legged fatigue on the
way down. Regrouping from the hill and dashing past the Bear Mountain Inn.
Marshaling your reserves (what reserves?) for the final mile. Huffing and
puffing past the skating rink, swinging around the basketball courts, and
sprinting it in across the Great Lawn playing field to the finish line.
On Nov. 30, at high noon, the memories came flooding back. The harriers
returned, they ran—and they remembered.
The convocation that reunited them was the 20th anniversary edition
of the Rockland Alumni Cross Country/Bill Markiewicz Memorial Run. There were
260 of them, plus a large throng of onlookers who stood and cheered, perhaps the
greatest mass of spectators this race has ever witnessed.
The weather gods cooperated with temperatures in the low 40s, minimal wind,
clouds but not a raindrop or snowflake in sight. In truth, the weather hardly
would have mattered to the dyed-in-the-wool cross-country zealots. They would
have shown up in a blizzard—just as 21 of them did in 1983, the inaugural
classic, which went off as scheduled despite a meteorological cocktail of hail,
snow, driving rain and gale-force winds.
The winners’ circle saw a pair of first-time individual champions crowned this
year, both of them gaining succession after posting runner-up finishes last
year. David Dominguez, the former North Rockland High School star from the class
of 1993, traversed the 3-mile course in 15 minutes 13.5 seconds for a 50-yard
victory margin over Justin Romaniuk, Suffern class of 2001, who clocked 15:23.
Dominguez coaches the cross country team at Alfred State, which he attended
before transferring to Kansas State. Romaniuk was the 2000 New York State Class
A champion while at Suffern and is a member of the Rockland All-Century Cross
Country Team. He now is a sophomore at Stanford, which recently won the NCAA
Division I cross-country championship.
Lauren Tuchband, Nanuet class of 1998, turned in a personal-best 18:16.5 to
score a 60-yard triumph over Heidi Everett-Powers, Warwick Valley class of 1995,
who ran 18:30. Tuchband was a four-year standout at SUNY Binghamton, from which
she graduated last spring. Everett-Powers had defeated Tuchband just two days
before the Alumni Run at the Thanksgiving Turkey Trot 5-mile run at Rockland
Lake. Tuchband and Everett-Powers were second and third, respectively at last
year’s Alumni Run.
Clarkstown/Clarkstown North swept the team scoring titles, only the third time
that trick has been turned in race history. The defending champion Rams’
men’s squad won their fourth title and third in four years with a score of 71
points. Monroe-Woodbury of Orange County edged Suffern for second, 96 to 104.
Clarkstown North claimed its first women’s championship, tallying the same
point total as the Rams’ men’s team, 71 points.
The Alumni Run places heavy emphasis on participation, as reflected in a
separate category dedicated to that aspect of the race. This year’s race
resulted in a tie for the participation title; Clarkstown North and Pearl River
each had 30 participants. While this category combines male and female
participants, this year’s race drew just 50 women versus 209 men, an imbalance
that race organizers hope to rectify in future years.
The fraternity of fellowship that the Alumni Run engenders is personified by
those loyalists who return year after year to renew acquaintances and share
reminiscences. Three of those dedicated souls have never missed an Alumni Run in
its 20-year lifespan: Pat Chambers, Larry Beckerle and Walt Johnston.
Longtime Rockland Road Runner members will recall Johnson as the infamous “Dr.
Pain,” the first coach/supervisor of the club’s weekly summer track
workouts. Johnston, Suffern class of 1965, coached cross country for many years
at St. Thomas Aquinas College in Sparkill. Chambers, Albertus Magnus ’76,
won the inaugural Alumni Run in 1983 and was a highly successful coach
for the Albertus Magnus girls’ track team. Beckerle, Albertus Magnus ’73,
was a Nanuet track and cross country coach for 14 years and piloted the Nanuet
girls to the 1990 New York State Class C title.
Special recognition should also be given to Sue (Gulla) Lanoce, Pearl River
class of 1983, who has taken part
in 19 Alumni Runs—all but the first year—the most of any woman.
Although the race is sponsored by Rockland alumni, graduates of many other high
schools have broadened the base of participation over the years. The staunchest
non-Rockland supporter of the race has been Monroe-Woodbury, of Central Valley
in neighboring Orange County. The meet and course record of 14:08 is held by
1986 Monroe-Woodbury alum John Trautmann, a 1992 U.S. Olympian at 5,000 meters.
It was therefore entirely appropriate that the person chiefly responsible for
the Crusaders’ annual mass participation should be honored with the Bill
Markiewicz Award. Lou Hall, the man who coached all those Monroe-Woodbury
athletes for more than 30 years before retiring this year, accepted the award
from Markiewicz’s widow, Janet.
The Markiewicz award is presented annually to an individual who has made a
significant contribution to the local cross country community. It is named in
memory of Bill Markiewicz, a 1967 Albertus Magnus graduate and former cross
country and track coach at Clarkstown North who died of cancer in 1991.
Markiewicz was an unabashed booster for the hills-and-trails sport who showered
his infectious enthusiasm on anyone, regardless of their school affiliation. In
the same spirit, Hall has been an ambassador for the sport and a longtime friend
of the Rockland cross-country community.
The day’s events concluded with a post-race celebration at Nicole’s
restaurant and catering hall in Highland Falls. A superb 20-minute video shown
at the party was produced by Pearl River alum Joe Beckerle. The video
incorporated live race footage from this year’s event, vintage snapshots and
newspaper headlines from past races, interspersed with interviews of key Alumni
Run participants and all set to inspirational music.
Next year's race is set for high noon on Saturday, Nov. 29, rain or shine, at
Bear Mountain. For more information on the Alumni Run, contact Jamie
Kempton at 845-627-2030 or at jkempton@kpmg.com.
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