When Don Howard began the Cooperstown Invitational 11 years ago, a day like last Saturday was exactly what he envisioned-great weather and performances, and a large crowd on hand to witness it.

"If you are a track junky, this was the place to be," Howard said. "There were just some unbelievable races and great individual performances which were great for spectators. We had ideal weather, and the bottom line is I think everyone from the athletes to the fans to the coaches had a lot of fun, and that's what this is all about."

The Oneonta boys and the Sidney girls won the meet, but some small school performers like Milford's Ben Cotter and Patrick Kelly, Cherry Valley-Springfield's Clayton Strange and Holly Meehan and Laurens' John Cook had meets to remember as well.

Cotter, a junior, set the meet and school record in the long jump with a distance of 21 feet two inches, while Cook was a close second with a distance of 20 feet, 11 inches. Cotter also won the 100 with a school record 11.1, finished second in the 200 and the 400 with a time of 52.6, also a school record. Kelly broke the school record while winning the 1600 with a time of 4:37.1, five seconds better than the previous mark. Kelly finished a close second to Oneonta's Nick Catella in the 800 as well. Milford finished fifth out of 15 teams, just one point behind B-GA for fourth place.

Kelly said his record time was due to extra time he put in in practice last week.

"I was doing double sessions, and there was no way I was going to let that work go to waste today," Kelly said.

"Patrick started putting in the mileage and he really has gained confidence," Milford track coach Dave Prouty said. "The fifth place for the boys is the best we've ever done at Cooperstown, and we were ecstatic with that."

The CCS boys took second place while the girls finished third, and both Cooperstown boys head coach Don Howard and girls coach Connie Herzig said their teams performed well. Both teams won just one race, the boys the 3200 relay and the girls the pole vault, won by Stephanie Smith's clearing of eight feet, six inches, a season best.

"We had two personal bests in winning the 3200 relay, from Nick Coccoma and Sam Stultz," Howard said. "We didn't win many events, but we scored points in a lot of events, and that's the type of team we are this year."

That's the type of team Herzig has as well.

"We need everybody to perform well if we're going to compete, and for the most part I thought everyone did," Herzig said. "We were able to take third because of a whole lot of team depth."

Herzig said Carolyn Clarvoe and Sarah Child's performances in both the 100 and 400 hurdles, and Smith's 400-meter run were particularly impressive. The girls 400 race was one of the better races of the day, as Sidney's Caitlin Graham edged out Meehan by one-tenth of a second, while Smith took third.

Both girls hurdle races were very close, with Oneonta's Toni McDaniels setting a meet record of 15.8 in the 100 hurdles, two-tenth's of a second better than CV-S's Kristen Karhio's 16.0 second place run. In the 400 hurdle race, Sidney's Willa Payne edged Meehan, with a meet record time of 1:08.7, just a little over a second better than Meehan's 1:09.

Karhio and Meehan helped the CV-S girls to a fifth place finish, while the boys took seventh place with a solid effort from senior Clayton Strange.

Strange, along with Michael Johnson, Chris Lusk and Greg Ganio, helped the 4x800 relay team break the school record with a time of 9:06:62; took third in the 800 and long jump.

On Friday, the Cooperstown boys and girls will compete in the Sherburne Invitational, while Milford will run in the Downsville Invitational at Hartwick College on Saturday. The CV-S boys will also run at Hartwick, while the girls team will run in Mohawk.