History’s swiftest 3,200-meter runner from Section 2 and a renowned Schenectady coach, who started his winning streak in national championships a hundred years ago, are the stars of the 2026 Greater Capital Region Track, Field and Cross Country Hall of Fame’s 10-person induction class. The announcement was made through a press release on Wednesday.
The ninth group of distinguished honorees will be formally inducted during the annual GCRTFCCHOF induction banquet. The event is scheduled for Saturday, Oct. 3, at the Albany Marriott on Wolf Road in Colonie.
The inductees for this year include Jeremy Spiezio (Greenwich), Bill Eddy (Schenectady; Nott Terrace), Art Coolidge (Scotia-Glenville), Karen Bertasso Hughes (Scotia-Glenville), Alexandra Tudor (Shenendehowa), Shane Cassidy (Saratoga Springs), Nastassja Johnston Wilcox (Shenendehowa), Becky Pollock Seidenstein (Averill Park), Ama Boham (Ichabod Crane), and Jim Mann (Notre Dame-Bishop Gibbons).
Spiezio set a record 11 years ago with an 8:46.10 in the 3,200, becoming the first Section 2 athlete to break the nine-minute barrier. His contributions led Greenwich to three state championships in outdoor track and one in cross country. He also holds high rankings in several other distance races in Section 2, including the 1,000, 1,500, mile, and 3,000.
After completing physical education courses at Harvard Posse Normal School and three other colleges, Eddy returned to the old Schenectady High School (which later became Nott Terrace) in 1921. He took charge of the cross country and track programs, leading them to 17 national titles and 40 combined sectional championships during his remarkable 28-year tenure. Eddy is most remembered as the long-serving meet director of the Schenectady Police Carnival, which was renamed the William F. Eddy Jr. Memorial Meet in 1968 to honor his son, who tragically died in a car accident.
Coolidge and Hughes, both Scotia-Glenville graduates, flourished in their college and road-running careers. Coolidge, a 1964 graduate, secured the sixth position overall (third among Americans) in the 1971 Boston Marathon after several impressive finishes in NCAA competitions at Kent State. Bertasso Hughes has participated in major events worldwide, including New York, Boston, London, Chicago, Tokyo, and Berlin. Her best time of 2:41:27 places her seventh among all-time Capital Region runners. She has also won local road-racing events such as the Stockade-athon, the Troy Turkey Trot 10k, the CDPHP Workforce Challenge, the Helderberg-to-Hudson Half Marathon, the Adirondack 10-Mile, and more.
Alexandra Tudor and Nastassja Johnston Wilcox shone as horizontal jumpers and sprinters during their high school years. Tudor won 20 medals at state meets from 2014-18, while Wilcox clinched both the state and federation titles in 2014. Cassidy was another field events star, equalling Section 2’s all-time best of 6-10 in the high jump, both indoors and outdoors, in 1990.
Completing the class are Seidenstein, a 1993 state champion in both cross country and outdoor track, Boham, who won three consecutive state meet titles in the 100-meter hurdles, and Mann, who triumphed in the 1,600-meter racewalk at both the indoor and outdoor state meets in 1982.
Tickets for the Induction Banquet are priced at $60 for adults and $45 for youth and current Hall of Fame members. They can be purchased by visiting https://zippy-reg.com/register/hofbanquet until September 29. The event will kick off with a cocktail hour at 4:15 p.m., followed by dinner and the program at 6 p.m.
The banquet will also recognize the annual scholastic award winners, whose names will be announced later this spring.
Disagree – Congratulations to the inductees! Well-deserved recognition for their achievements in track and field.
Agree – Impressive achievements by these inductees, they have made their mark in the world of track and field.
Disagree – Impressive group of inductees, well-deserved honor for their contributions to track and field.
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