ONONDAGA COUNTY – It proved quite a week for area cross country since Liverpool and Cicero-North Syracuse had their annual league showdown at Long Branch Park, but that was far from the only news.
Kate Putman, the Nothstars’ senior standout, announced that she would attend North Carolina State University next fall, joining the reigning NCAA cross country champions.
Putman is expected to be part of a Wolfpack squad that includes many familiar faces from competitions past, from Liverpool’s Jenna Schulz to Tully great Brooke Rauber.
Last weekend, Putman raced in North Carolina at the Adidas Cross Country Challenge and did quite well, finishing in second place out of 227 runners, her time of 17 minutes, 42.9 seconds trailing only Maryland runner Leah Stephens, who won in 17:21.2.
All of this happened after C-NS took on Liverpool last Wednesday afternoon, where the Warriors won both sides of this meet.
The boys race was all Liverpool, a 15-50 decision where Mike Purvis, in 17 minutes, 51.8 seconds, led a top-five Warriors sweep.
Josh Vang made his way to second place, in 18:48.9, just ahead of Andrew Corrigan’s third-place 18:53.6. Brady Ruediger got fourth place in 19:34.5 and Jacob Goss (19:59.3) also broke the 20-minute mark.
To lead C-NS, Jacob LaPoint put up a time of 20:44.3. Justin Asch and Evan Champ each finished in 21:11.9, while Joe Massett and Ashton Murdock had times of 21:16.6.
The girls race went 27-30 in Liverpool’s favor as the top C-NS runners stayed together, Elizabeth Smith in 23:17.3 running with Kate Putman, Marissa Navarra, Gabby Putman and Hannah Boyle.
Meanwhile, Taylor Page went 21:17.5 to lead the Warriors and Meghan Moyer finished second in 21:32.2. Addison Ziegler posted 23:10.8 as Addyson Graham was ninth in 23:26.2 and Kaitlin Hotaling got 24:06.3.
Some of the top C-NS runners would go to Saturday’s East Syracuse Minoa Invitational where, led by Boyle, the Northstars swept the top four spots and were 50 points clear of runner-up West Genesee.
Boyle had her first big race of the fall, tearing to victory in 18:33.8 as Gabby Putman was second in 19:02.6, nearly half a minute behind.
Navarra gained third place in 19:33.4, with Addyson Graham going 20:00.6 to finish fourth as Katy Harbold earned sixth place in 20:07.8.
Third in the boys race at ESM behind West Genesee and Montrose, C-NS saw Tyler Graham take 13th place in 18:06.7, with Asch 14th in 18:09.2 edging out Murdock (18:11.3) for that spot.
