An early conclusion to their respective Salt City Athletic Conference Metro division slates meant that the Liverpool and Cicero-North Syracuse cross country teams did not have any mid-week activity last week.
However, when the weekend arrived, the Warriors and Northstars both took part in invitational races, with two of the sides emerging triumphant.
Liverpool joined a handful of other Section III sides venturing to Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx for last Saturday’s annual Manhattan College Invitational, competing in the Varsity “C” division on both the boys and girls sides.
And the girls Warriors won the Mike Cohen Memorial, earning 89 points to top a field of 20 rivals as St. Anthony was second with 105 points.
Taylor Page ran her way to third place, going 15 minutes, 29 seconds on the 2.5-mile Van Cortlandt course. Kaitlyn Hotaling wasn’t far behind, taking eighth among team runners and 10th overall in 15:56 flat.
Addison Ziegler gained 23rd place on the team side in 16:51.7, with Kailyn Barth 26th in that same category in 16:54.5 as Charlotte Warner, 30th in the team event in 16:59.3, clinched Liverpool’s victory.
Right after, the boys C Race, called the Francis Sweeney Memorial, took place, and the Warriors finished sixth in a 25-team field, largely on the strength of Brady Ruediger going 13:09.5 for sixth place on the individual side.
Josh Vang gained 25th place in 13:38.2, with Roman Murray finishing 43rd in 13:53.7 as Nate Aurello was 53rd in 14:03.7 and Andrew Corrigan finished 71st in 14:36.1/
C-NS went first, taking part last Friday in the Chittenango Bears Twilight Invitational and seeing its boys team emerge triumphant, its total of 81 points well clear of runner-up Mexico’s 130 and ahead of the likes of West Genesee and Fayetteville-Manlius, too.
To lead the Northstars, Tyler Graham recorded a ninth-place team finish (10th overall) in 17:39.4, though it was well back of the winning 15:46.7 put up by F-M superstar Nolan McGinn.
Rhett Andrews was 13th on the team side (14th overall) in 17:47.4, while Nolan Zinsmeyer (18:10.4) and Dominic Petrera (18:11.1) ran together, each of them in the individual top 20. Joe Massett clinched team honors by posting 18:42.1, just ahead of the 18:44.9 from Braden Santaguida.
Over in the girls race at Chittenango, C-NS had Kennedy Jones run quite well, the eighth-grader finishing in 19:23.9 to finish third, not far from the winning 18:54.8 from F-M’s Izzie Sullivan and 19:14.1 from the Hornets’ Camille Ryan.
The Northstars were fourth in the team standings as Cameron Sisk finished 11th in 20:30.1. Allison Moran took 30th place among team runners in 22:23.2 as Elliana Ballagh (23:32.5) and Isabella Petrera (23:39.0) rounded out the scoring column.
Both C-NS and Liverpool would head to Baldwinsville this Wednesday for the Salt City Athletic Conference Metro division championship races.
