Fox Lane’s Marc Desforges finishes a step away from a trip to states

Marc Desforges leads the pack in a race to the finish line in the 3,200-meter race. JIM MACLEAN PHOTOS

Gabriella Ransom, above, throws the javelin on her way to a third-place finish for the Foxes.

Gabriella Ransom, above, throws the javelin on her way to a third-place finish for the Foxes.

By JIM MACLEAN

It was a race runners dream about, only the best competition pushing each other right from the start, eight grueling laps, step for step keeping your pace with the pack, finishing with a furious kick down the straight away, crossing the line just inches and tenths of a second apart.

The only thing missing for Fox Lane senior Marc Desforges was a happy ending as he crossed the finish line in the boys 3,200-meter race at the Section 1 State Qualifier meet with a time of 9:31.06, just a couple of steps behind Anis Abidar of Arlington at 9:30.41.

Desforges surged to the lead on the final lap against a deep and talented pack of the best distance runners in Section 1 trying to earn a trip to the state championship meet. He was in the lead on the final turn, but Abidar was able to overtake him at the line with the home crowd cheering him on at Arlington on June 4.

“That was a beautiful race, Marc is such a great, talented runner, and for him to go with the game plan and then execute, it was amazing to watch,” Fox Lane coach Steve Petrillo said of the race by Desforges. “He went at the right time with authority, a beautiful tactical race, going with absolute abandon at the end, he performed great and just missed it by a couple of feet.”

It was the final race in Section 1 to cap a great senior year and career for Marc representing Fox Lane at the state qualifier meet, and it was the same for his twin brother Jacques Desforges on the third day of the meet at Suffern on June 5.

Jacques ran in the 1,600-meter race against another star-studded field of the top distance runners from the Section. In the state qualifier meet you have the top qualifiers from each Class in the Section competing in the same heat of the distance races to push each other to try and qualify for the state meet. That makes it exciting, but also difficult as runners try to strategize a way to emerge from the pack. Jacques ran a season best time of 4:26.33 to finish in seventh-place overall.

“Jacques also ran a great race, a season best for him,” Petrillo said of Jacques. “The mile goes by much quicker, and the field being mixed with all classes fighting for position, he ran a great race with a great effort to finish that high. Both brothers are talented and hard working, and they do a lot of quiet, behind the scene work as leaders to keep the spirits up and show by example that you don’t get to be a good runner without putting in the time.”

Fox Lane also had a trio of athletes compete in the field events as senior Santo Cutri was third in the Class A boys hammer throw with a toss of 132 feet and 4 inches.  Cutri capped his track career by setting the Fox Lane school record in the hammer event. He will compete in track and field next year at the collegiate level at SUNY Oswego.

“Santo loves it, he just loves the sport, and he set the school record,” Petrillo said of Cutri. “He’s one of those kids who makes friends with everybody out there competing hard and pushing each other to do their best.”

Gabriella Ransom made her mark as a freshman for Fox Lane, and she finished up her first season in the sport with a third-place finish in the javelin. Ransom has just started competing in the event the last few weeks of the season and she won the event at the Westchester County Meet. On the first day of the meet Wednesday, June 3, at Hen Hud, Ransom finished third in the javelin with a top throw of 90 feet, 9 inches. She also qualified to compete in the shot put after finishing first at the Section 1 Class A championship meet, but elected to not compete in the event at the state qualifier.

“She’s amazing, a great first season for her,” Petrillo said of Ransom. “She’s done a great job. The javelin is a plus, she just took it up and let it go, she’s still kind of raw and over time she will learn technique. She has accomplished a lot, she won the Class A Section title in the shot put, she’s hooked on the sport and I’m excited to see what she can do next year.”

Lawrence Tropea finished eighth in the boys javelin for the Foxes.