ONONDAGA COUNTY – Back from its win at Chenango Valley on Sept. 18, the Fayetteville-Manlius girls cross country team again stated its case as the state’s strongest Class A side.
Extra motivation came from the fact that the first state Class A rankings showed the Hornets no. 2 behind Saratoga Springs – a spot it shared with the F-M boys, who were second in its state poll behind Corning.
Going to Baldwinsville last Wednesday afternoon, each of the Hornets’ sides easily earned victories over the Bees and Henninger in a three-team meet by 15-50 margins.
It was freshman Izzie Sullivan breaking out in a big way in this race for the F-M girls as she roared to a winning time of 18 minutes, 8.2 seconds, nearly a full minute ahead of Hannah Kaercher’s 19:00.4.
Amelia Amack got to third place in 19:25.3, while Debbie Lucchetti (19:52.6) and Isabelle Adrian (19:53.3) rounded out the top five. F-M claimed the next four spots, too, as Maria Khalifeh, sixth in 20:33.9, beat out Camille Ryan’s 20:36 flat, with Catherine Walters (21:58.8) and Ava Beecher (22:01.3) behind them.
F-M’s boys defeated B’ville 15-47, getting a top-six sweep with Anthony Otis at the forefront, Otis finishing in 17:09.2 to pull away from the rest of the pack.
Will Seamans, in 17:42.6, edged Ben Perry (17:43.5) for second place. Daniel Patrick was fourth in 17:57.8 as Cooper Dereszynski earned fifth place in 18:08.3. Nolan McGinn was sixth in 18:10.6 and Kyler Patrick (19:03.4) was 10th.
Christian Brothers Academy took on Mexico last Wednesday ,with the boys beating the Tigers 21-50 as Joe McMahon earned the individual title in 20:45, edging the 20:46 from Cooper Groat as Michael McMahon claimed third place in 20:47.
The CBA girls, who had won Sept. 18 at the Jordan-Elbridge Invitational, handled Mexico 15-50 as Kristina Kennedy won the individual race in 25:06, half a minute ahead of Eve Elkes’ 25:36. Bella Cannizzo (25:42), Mary Sullivan (26:57) and Izzy Housel (27:40) rounded out the top five.
Jamesville-DeWitt met Oswego last Wednesday afternoon, a warm-up for when it traveled, with CBA and East Syracuse Minoa, to Saturday’s 69th annual Baldwinsville Invitational.
Michael McMahon was the star here, winning the boys Small School race as his time of 16:27.3 was easily ahead of the 17:03.9 from Cortland’s Jared Valentin. Groat finished fourth, in 17:11.1, with Joe McMahon eighth in 17:45.4 and Bishop Grimes‘ Sean Moran 15th in 18:05 flat.
In the girls small school race, Bishop Grimes’ Edy Livingston finished 17th in 21:36.4, two spots ahead of Cannizzo, who paced CBA with 21:56 flat as Sullivan (22:31.0) was 25th among team runners.
J-D finished fifth out of 15 sides in the boys Large School race, with Alex Martinez making his way to 10th place in 16:59.9, just ahead of Connor Clarkson, who was 15th in 17:24.6. ESM had John Courcy lead the way as his 19:06.8 beat out Tom Walters (19:07.9) for 57th place.
Meanwhile, in the girls Large School race at B’ville, Rachael Ladd paced ESM, running to 13th place in 21:04.7. Still, the Spartans were 10th in the team standings, two spots behind J-D, who had Nicolete Milliti 29th in 22:35.8, three spots ahead of Megan O’Malley’s 22:45.5.
