Rob Breen Invite Called Off

Update (9/9): Here is an update on Clove Lakes from George Kochman of the Staten Island Advance.

Word came down over the weekend that the 2011 Rob Breen Memorial cross country race scheduled for Saturday at Clove Lakes Park on Staten Island has been cancelled because of damage to the course from Hurricane Irene. Click here for Tim Fulton's earlier coverage of the condition of area course following the hurricane.

From Coach Tom Cuffe at Monsignor Farrell:

There are eight signifcant trees down along the running trail plus extensive erosion to the soft running surface of dirt, peat and wood chips. In many places there are NO wood chips remaining — it is down to the basic foundation of the drainage stones. The course is un-runnable.

We took extraordinary measures to try to get the course ready. I contacted the Boro President, Jim Molinaro, and his VP, Ed Burke, to get permission to bring in a private contractor to work on the course. This permission is usually never granted. We got permission. Then we contacted the Staten Island Parks Commissioner, Adena Long, to tell her our plan and it was approved along with District Manager of Parks Frank Carcaterra.

Long story short, after surveying the course again [Sunday] morning, we came to the conclusion that even with a private contractor we could not get the course ready in such a short time frame. Virtually every contractor is booked solid with tree, debris and hurricane damage removal until well into next week.

We wanted to give everyone an opportunity to find another meet for next week or to allow you to tweak your training schedule appropriately in a timely fashion.

Also some new news about the Tom Toscano course at Sachem East. It suffered only minor damage from the hurricane. Downed trees and limbs were completely removed before the weekend. Thanks much to the iReporters!