BREWSTER — It’s not unusual for high school girls — or, even on rare occasion (think Katelyn Tuohy), middle school girls — to excel in cross-country.
It’s rarer for boys.
But Horace Greeley’s Ryan Sykes, who broke onto the high school running scene in a huge way last year as a freshman, finishing in the top 10% at the state Federation championships before finishing 11th out of more than 200 in the Nike Cross Regionals nationals qualifier, is that rare runner.
The beginning of his sophomore campaign has been even more impressive.
A week after running the Bowdoin Park course (host to both the Fed and Nike Cross) more than 28 seconds faster than he ever had at the high-caliber Bowdoin X-C Classic, Sykes claimed his third win of the season Saturday, getting it at the 46th annual Brewster Bear X-C Classic.
Sykes, who ran to a third-place finish of 16.27.7 at Brewster last year, annihilated that mark, breaking 16 minutes with a 15.59.2 clocking.
And he ran that without being pushed.
Second-place finisher Landon Wall of Brookfield, Connecticut was better than 20 seconds back in 16:20.2 in a field of 100.