VERONA – If ever there was a time a visiting side could fault home-course advantage, the Cazenovia boys cross country team could do so at the conclusion of last Saturday’s Section III Class C championships.
Here were the Lakers, assured of posting its best-ever finish at a sectional meet, and the only thing in the way of a first sectional title was the home side from Vernon-Verona-Sherrill.
And it was the Red Devils, with 79 points, holding off Cazenovia (82 points) by three points to win the team title and advance to this weekend’s state meet as Mexico was third with 112 points.
Individually, it was senior Branden McColm leading the Lakers, going 18 minutes, 49.8 seconds to make his way to ninth place, seventh among runners outside of VVS.
Running together, senior Will Austin and eighth-grader Jake Woolbert got into the top 15, Austin getting 13th place in 19:07.8 as Woolbert was 14th in 19:11.8.
Sophomore Kooper Wilmot was 22nd in 19:42.2 as junior Garret Lounsbury was 24th in 19:47.6 and junior Eddie Comeau was 27th in 19:55.5.
To win it, VVS needed Jordan Wingert (18:38.5) and Nathan Geroux (18:43.0) to finish just ahead of McColm, plus Rowan Planck (19:17.5) and Ben Bellinger (19:19.2) to crack the top 20 and a 29th-place finish from R.J. Krupski to fend off the Lakers.
Up in Class B, Chittenango finished second to New Hartford in the girls sectional race as junior Laura Powers earned a berth in the state meet with her third-place time of 21:35.3.
Powers was joined by sophomore Ani McCarthy, who claimed the fifth and final individual spot when she finished in 22:53.6 as Bailee Burton, in 24:12.3, edged out Mariah Stewart (24:13.4) and Sophia DiGennaro (24:20.8) for 20th place.
The boys Bears were fourth in Class B, but star senior Caleb Leblanc earned a trip to the state meet when he made his way to third place in 18:02.9, not far from the winning 17:46.9 by Jamesville-DeWitt’s Connor Clarkson.
Kaleb Toscano, in a time of 19:21.1, got 16th place for Chittenango, with Manu Tipa 20th among team runners in 19:42.8 as Logan Rogers (21:03.0) was ahead of Gavin Roach (21:21.7).
