MacKinnon and Lee second at National Junior Olympics in Kentucky

Results 

Last weekend (12-13 Dec) 25 athletes from the New York association competed at the USATF National Junior Olympic Cross Country Championships in Paris, Kentucky.  

A total of 1346 athletes from across the country competed in the championships.  Historically all ten championship races have been conducted on one day but this year the meet was conducted over two days to ensure proper COVID-19 mitigation procedures could be achieved.  One of these procedures included races being broken into wave starts which created an unprecedented level of suspense as athletes in each division had to wait to the final wave to learn of their placing.  The course, considered challenging by most, included an uphill finish.

The storylines of the day for the New York athletes were the six (6) top-five finishes turned in by athletes from three different clubs - Ocean Breeze Wave Runners, Prospect Park Youth RC, and Tailwind. A total of 11 locals earned all-American honors for their top-25 finishes.

In the first race of the weekend, Ocean Breeze Wave Runners teammates Payton Rosado and Gabriella Mitchell pickup the first all-American honors for the locals.  Rosado finished a very impressive 5th running 8:12 over the 2 km course.  Mitchell finished 24th running 9:00.

In the 7-8 boys race Everett Hammond (Prospect Park Youth Running) finished third running 7:33.  He was just 3 seconds behind race winner Micah Weber of Washington.  Yousef Ahmed (Ocean Breeze Wave Runners) placed 15th, running 8:06, to also earn all-American honors. 

Two more all-American honors were nabbed by the New Yorkers in the 9-10 girls race as Malina Rodriguez-King (Ocean Breeze Wave Runners) and Saffa Ellis (Prospect Park Youth RC) finished 12th and 14, respectively.  Their times were 12:33 and 12:40 over the 3 km course.

In the 9-10 boys competition Konstantin MacKinnon (Westchester Wolves) and Avery Rosado (Ocean Breeze Wave Runners) finished second and fourth, respectively.  MacKinnon ran 10:46 to only trail race winner William Malueg's by three seconds.   Rosado, the older brother of Payton, earned his top-5 finish running a time of 11:13.  Picking up the third all-American honor in the age division was Melvin Jarnit-Bjergsoe (Tailwind TC) with a 16th place finish.

In the 11-12 boys race Tailwind TC teammates Nathan Lee and Matteo Chiesara finished second and third, respectively.  It was the best combined finish by teammates in the entire competition.  Lee ran 10:25 while Chiesara stopped the clock at 10:32.  Race winner Dylan Smith of Colorado was just 2.6 seconds faster than Lee.

Click here to see the full New York Results Scoreboard. 

The 2021 national championships will return to Paris, KY next year.