tickets now available
Tickets are now on sale for the fifth annual induction banquet for the Greater Capital Region Track, Field and Cross Country Hall of Fame, which will honor its fifth class of inductees on Saturday, Oct. 1, beginning at 4:30 p.m. at the Albany Marriott on Wolf Road in Colonie.
Five national champions, including two whose college records have stood for decades, are among 10 athletes and coaches who are part of the 2022 class. Tickets are $60 ($50 for youth/students) and can be purchased online or by visiting https://www.runtrackhof.com.
Kevin Scheuer, a Bishop Gibbons graduate, was a middle distance star at Union College in the late 1970s, leaving behind six individual and three relay records that have not been bettered in more than 40 years. He won the NCAA Division III indoor championship in the 1,500-meter run.
Similarly, Ballston Spa speedster Tim McCrossen still holds four indoor and four outdoor school records at St. Lawrence University, where he was a 12-time Division III All-American in the 1980s and won NCAA championships in the outdoor 100 meters and indoor 400.
Dana Ostrander Bush chose to skip the 1996 state meet her senior year at Shenendehowa to instead compete in the Keebler International Prep Invitational in Chicago, a precursor to the current national meets, and won the two mile. She had already chalked up four state meet individual golds and three more on relays during her career with the Plainsmen.
Felipe Reyes of Christian Brothers Academy continues to hold the all-time Section 2 outdoor long jump record of 24-3 ¾ set in 2003 as well as the indoor mark of 24-5 set in 2004. His achievements include a first-place finish in the Nike Indoor Nationals long jump.
The fifth national champion is Jennifer Fazioli, a three-time state cross country individual winner for Averill Park in the 1990s. She later competed for the University of Colorado and was a member of the Division I NCAA Cross Country championship team in 2000.
Two veteran coaches are being honored, Marbry Gansle and Matt Jones. Gansle developed the girls’ cross country program at Shaker High School and coached for 42 years, accumulating an impressive record and numerous honors. Jones mentored a long list of athletes who won state and national championships during his tenure at Shenendehowa and is finding similar success as an assistant coach at the University at Albany.
Others to be inducted are Aidan Tooker of Saratoga Springs and Syracuse University, one of only three Capital Region runners ever to break the four-minute mile; John Gregg, a state sprint champion with Colonie in the 1950s whose retired records in yard distances were never broken; and Tedi DeMaria of Bethlehem, a state pole vault winner who sits second on the all-time Section 2 lists, indoors and out.
For additional Information, Contact GCRTFCCHOF President Peter Sheridan
or visit www.runtrackhof.com