CENTRAL NEW YORK – From all the warm, dry conditions it faced early this fall, area cross country teams knew that it would get colder, with the ensuing rain and mud and all the things that make the sport so unique.
West Genesee had a showdown with Baldwinsville last Wednesday and split that meet, with the girls Wildcats previaling 20-37 and the boys falling 20-40 to the Bees.
It was Zoe Maupin leading the WG girls, her time of 20 minutes, 37.4 seconds trailing B’ville’s Kamryn Barton (19:50.5) on the Durgee Junior High School course, but ahead of a pack of Wildcats.
Peyton Long took third in 20:55.1, with Andrea Conklin fourth in 21:26.5. Claire Griffin was fifth (21:28.2) and Rebecca Dickey sixth in 21:30.2 as Karolina Lata got 10th place in 22:04.3.
Over in the boys meet, WG’s Kevin Moser ran to a time of 17:32.4, but that trailed the 17:14.5 from second-place Noah Covert as the Bees’ Solomon Holden-Betts ran away to win in 15:57.7. Max
Broccoli did finish fifth in 17:44.3, with Connor Moore (18:30.6) the Wildcats’ only other top-10 finisher.
Skaneateles ran last Wednesday against Hannibal and lost two close races, falling 24-34 to that other group of Lakers.
The boys Lakers lost 24-31 to Hannibal, with Aidan Ward faring best for Skaneateles as he finished third in 17:54, ahead of any of the Cazenovia runners.
Mike Galbato posted 20:06 and Patrick Hagen finished in 20:27 ahead of Charles Kissel (21:11) and Sam Coleman (21:48). Only Ward and Galbato were ahead of Cazenovia’s group by race’s end.
When the Skaneateles girls, who lost a 25-33 battle to Cazenovia, ran at last Saturday’s Baldwinsville Invitational, it finished fifth out of 18 teams in the Varsity Small School division despite having just five runners present.
Lucy Fleckenstein finished eighth overall, sixth among team runners, in a time of 21:10.9, with Annabel Wells (21:30.6) and Tobi DiRubbo (21:37.3) 11th and 13th, respectively, in the team standings.
Westhill saw, on the boys side, Drew O’Reilly emerge as the individual champion of the Small School Varsity race at the Baldwinsville Invitational.
In a time of 16:18.3, O’Reilly pulled away from Pulaski’s Luke Tighe (16:35.9) as no one else broke the 17-minute mark. Team-wise, the Warriors finished fourth, with Edward Popp 11th in 17:47.2 as Marcellus was sixth, led by Nate Alexander, who was 42nd in 19:08.3.
Also racing at Baldwinsville, Westhill’s girls had Stella Napolitano finish 18th in the team standings in 22:03 flat
In league action, Westhill ran last Tuesday against Mexico, sweeping the girls meet 15-50 as Napolitano, in 21:33, edged out Ellie Thornton (21:35) in the individual race. Eileen Mullen (22:04), Ashley Carter (22:13) and Alexis Bergett (22:31) completed a top-five sweep.
The closer boys race has Westhill beat the Tigers 27-29 as O’Reilly took individual honors in 15:48, nearly a minute ahead of Teddy Popp’s 16:55. Bryce Burdick (18:18), Carlos Ramos (18:56), Jack Pease (18:59) and Sean Finnerty (19:04) helped the Warriors hang on.
Jordan-Elbridge prevailed over Bishop Ludden as Alex Kunz led the Eagles with a time of 17:48, a full minute ahead of Peyton Bates’ 18:51. Porter Sheen was third for the Gaelic Knights in 19:40 and Ben Thielen (22:42) was fourth, but J-E swept the rest of the top 10, led by Alex Coomber’s 22:54.
