The Manhasset Cross-Country team, coming off their first meet of the season just two days before, had an impressive showing on Saturday, Oct. 2, at the St. Anthony's 2.5 mile Invitational at Sunken Meadow, placing their first two runners in the top 20 of the small schools race.

Senior Tom Papain led the team with a time of 14:16, placing 10th in the race and improving on his time by eight seconds from the year before.

Junior Matt Brennan placed second on the team and 17th overall, running 14:38. It was his first race at Sunken Meadow.

Seniors Cary Choy, Brendan McDonough, and Yousuf Qureshi ran times of 16:24, 16:34, and 16:44, respectively, placing in the top 75 of the race.

The course is regarded by many as one of the toughest in New York State. The harriers must run up a steep hill referred to as snake, due to the winding shape of the hill, and a half mile later run up a longer and steeper hill: Cardiac Hill. After this hill there is a long, progressive incline, for about a tenth of a mile, before the course flattens out.

Manhasset faced 24 cross-country teams from both their classes in Nassau County and Upstate New York. Among the teams in the race was Seaford, a team that will be in direct competition with Manhasset on Nov. 13 for the County title.

The top five of the Manhasset boys cross-country team won their match on Sept. 30 over Mineola and Locust Valley by a significant margin.

The team will be racing Saturday at the Manhattan Invitational in Van Cortland Park. With more than 15,000 kids from over 10 different states participating, it is clearly the biggest invitational in the nation.