New Hartford Captures Boilermaker School Team Award

For the fourth consecutive year the New Hartford Spartans have captured the Boilermaker School Participation Award. The award is part of the Boilermaker's Empower Federal Credit Union School Challenge Series. This award is presented to the school with the highest percentage of participation in the Boilermaker 5K and 15K Road Races.

As it was in the past three Boilermakers, the Spartans once again sat atop the leader board with nearly a third of the students participating in the race (32.8%). New Hartford was presented the award at the December school board meeting. The Spartans will have the traveling trophy on display at the school until the end of the academic year. Whitesboro School District placed second in the competition with 31.4% of students participating in the Boilermaker.

Overall, 37 schools from around Central New York participated in the 2011 Boilermaker Road Race.

"This year, the substantial growth in the school challenge surpassed our expectations," said Kevin Copeland, Race Divisions Director "That this is an important award because it encompasses the whole student body and not just the premier athletes of the school."

Each team runner had to have been a full time student between grades 7-12 as of June 1, 2011, or a 2011 graduate of the school they were running for.

The registration for Boilermaker 2012 will open on January 7th at boilermaker.com. The 15K has a cap of 14,000 and the 5K of 4,000.