As he approached the finish line, Luke Diemoz knew he had done it.

With his arms pointed outward in celebration as he crossed the finish line, Diemoz completed a fifth-place finish at Thursday’s Section 9 Class B boys’ cross country championships at Bear Mountain State Park. He was the third individual runner to qualify for states in the race with a time of 16:45.3.

“I’ve worked way too hard this season and it’s honestly just a fresh breath of relief because I wanted it so bad,” said Diemoz, a senior at Wallkill High School. “That’s all I’ve been thinking about for the last two weeks.”
Diemoz was one of two local runners to qualify for Saturday’s New York Public High School Athletic

Association championship meet at Chenango Valley State Park.

Valley Central junior Ava Carlsen finished second in the girls’ Class A race to punch her second ticket to states.

“It’s very tiring,” Carlsen said. “It’s a very hard course.”

Unlike Carlsen, who is making a return visit to states, Diemoz will make his only trip as he concludes a long fall that also saw him play in goal for the Wallkill boys’ soccer team. The Panthers’ season had ended on Oct. 27, a game he missed due to injury.

“I had a very long fall playing soccer, as well,” Diemoz said. “After losing that semifinal for soccer, I knew that I needed to do something here to keep going, and I really wanted one more week of cross-country.”

He knew he was going to qualify for states after the course took the runners around Lake Hessian and up the mountain as Diemoz and teammate Jake Craypo had pulled away from the pack they were running in. He was positive once he passed Goshen’s Caleb Ayau.

Diemoz almost had some company at the state meet, but Craypo finished about six seconds behind Red Hook’s Adam Moyer, who grabbed the fifth and final individual spot.

“That would have been one of the best things, but he’s still got another year and he’s going to be great,” Diemoz said. “I think, personally, he’s going to do way better than me. He’s still got one more year but that would have been amazing and he’s a great kid.”

Carlsen, meanwhile, won the race for second place as no one was catching the race’s winner, Cornwall’s Karrie Baloga, who made her winning time of 17:40.2 look effortless.

Carlsen showed up at the finish line about a minute later, 14 seconds ahead of Washingtonville’s Anne Hagan.

“There was a girl in third who was pretty close for most of the race,” Carlsen said. “But she wasn’t that close at the beginning, so I wasn’t super nervous about getting second. Obviously, I wasn’t going to get first.”

Carlsen is attending her second state meet, where she is hoping for some better conditions than two years ago, a snowy morning in Plattsburgh.

“It’s just a lot different atmosphere and, obviously, a lot faster,” Carlsen said. “And not to mention the course for that year, they had to change a bunch and it was really snowy. It was definitely a weird experience.”

Section 9 Cross Country Championships
Girls Class B
1. Goshen 17; 2. Monticello - 56; 3. New Paltz - 69; 4. Red Hook - 105.

Local results: 1. Kayla Schramm (Goshen); 9. Andie Psilopoulos (Wallkill) - 21:32.7; 16. Maria Morales (Wallkill) - 22:28.1; 27. Ava Deguzman - 24:38.5

Class A
1. Cornwall - 37; 2. Monroe-Woodbury - 54; 3. Washingtonville - 84; 4. Warwick - 93; 5. Minisink Valley - 144; 6. Valley Central 171; 7. FDR - 195; 8. Newburgh - 219; 9. Pine Bush - 231; 10. Middletown - 317.

Local results: 1. Karrie Baloga (Cornwall); 2. Ava Carsley (VC) - 18:46.6; 35 - Laura Griffin (VC) - 22:08.9; 38. Alyssa Biondi (PB) - 22:26.3; 40. Hailey Morrison (VC) - 22:34.0; 46. Jessica Horne (PB) - 23L33.0; 48. Lillian Gabriele (PB) - 23:49.1; 49. Catherine Primavera (VC) - 23:51.8; 52. Riley Cavalluzzo (VC) - 24:11.8; 54. Amelia Tremper (PB) - 24:26.1; 56. Eden Carr (PB) - 24:36.6; 59. Kelsey Burke (VC) - 24:55.6; 62. Grace Burns (VC) - 25:13.2; 63. Caitlin Palmer (PB) - 25:18.6; 69. Marissa Albano (PB) - 26:42.2.

Boys

Class B
1. Mount Academy - 44; 2. Goshen - 59; 3. Wallkill - 88; 4. Beacon - 93; 5. Red Hook - 122; 6. New Paltz - 151; 7. Monticello - 169; 8. Saugerties - 236.

Local results: 1. Ike Blough (Mount) - 15:40.8; 5. Luke Diemoz (Wallkill); 8. Jake Craypo (Wallkill) - 17:02.2; 21. Marco Martini (Wallkill) - 18:10.5; 27. Josh Craypo (Wallkill) - 18:36.9; 30. J.J. Wagner (Wallkill) - 18:46.8; 33. Riley Burke (Wallkill) 18:53.3l; 45. Nicky Missale (Wallkill) - 19:29.7.

Class A
1. Monroe-Woodbury - 45; 2. Washingtonville - 82; 3. Cornwall - 84; 4. Warwick - 91; 5. Minisink Valley - 166; 6. Kingston - 176; 7. Pine Bush - 188; 8. FDR - 190; 9. Newburgh - 200; 10. Valley Central - 213; 11. Middletown - 336.

Local results: 1. Jeremy Jean-Charles (Cornwall) - 15:50.5; 13. Colby Zupetz (PB) - 17:02.2; 17. Jacob Sahlstrom (VC) - 17:13.0; 27. Colin Best (PB) - 17:54.0; 29. Caleb Sahlstrom (VC) - 18:00.7; 37. Andrew Donaldson (PB) - 18:29.9; 42. Vance Palmer (VC) - 18:48.8; 49. JamesMichael Vizzari (PB) - 19:08.5; 60. Brian Quinn (VC) - 19:46.8; 62. Malakai Henry-Geraghty (PB) - 19:55.2; 65. Rocky Reavey (VC) - 20:41.0; 66. Christopher Gentile (PB) - 20:49.2; 68. Daniel Aguilar (PB) - 20:57.7; 69. Isaiah Nieves (VC) - 21:07.8; 70. Myles Corday (VC) - 21:30.0