On this day 29 years ago…

The 1981 girls’ cross country season was the best since the program’s inception in 1977. A strong core of seniors, 4-time All-American Laura Whitney, Elke Dee, Lisa Murray, and Andrea Stahl, led the team to a fantastic regular season with their only loss coming to the perennial State Champions, Miller Place.

From there, the girls took home the Class C County Championship for the first time in program history, giving them a berth in the New York State Meet. On November 7, amid the year’s first major snowfall in Malone, NY, the team finished in 7th place while Whitney won an unprecedented fourth individual State Championship, a mark unequaled until Saratoga’s Erin Davis accomplished the feat in 1996. To this day they are the only two runners, male or female, in New York State history to have won four titles. During the first major snowfall of the year, Whitney cruised to a 25-second victory on the Malone Golf Course in 21:11, the fourth best time of the day among all classes, giving her a fourth title alongside her crowns from 1977-1979. The win helped alleviate the disappointment of her 4th place finish the previous year.

Girls Class C Championship Top 5

Place	Runner	School	Section	Time
1	Laura Whitney	Stony Brook	XI	21:11
2	Marypat Lindner	Hastings	I	21:36
3	Brenda Kirk	Candor	IV	21:48
4	Tricia Woods	Tupper Lake	X	22:02
5	Jackie Platt	Unatego	IV	22:11

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