Even as league competition began to wind down among area high school cross country teams Skaneateles junior Lucy Fleckenstein continued to add to her winning total.
Fleckenstein beat the field last Saturday at the Vernon-Verona-Sherrill Invitational held on the course which hosted the last two New York State Public High School Athletic Association meets.
In 20 minutes 2.5 seconds Fleckenstein had enough to hold off Tully’s Anna Congelli (20:07.8) by 5.3 seconds, the two of them pulling away from the rest of the field by nearly half a minute.
Though a full Skaneateles girls squad did not run at this meet Tobi DiRubbo still finished 24th in a clocking of 23:46.8, one spot ahead of Monica Pohl’s 24:05 flat as Bishop Ludden had Mia DeCarlo finish 31st in 24:36.9.
A day later, a couple of other local teams took part in the Manhattan Invitational at Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx.
Jordan-Elbridge ran in the Varsity ‘C’ boys race, with Alex Kunz covering 2.5 miles in 15:41.1, two seconds ahead of teammate Connor Boylan’s 15:43.1 as Westhill, in the girls Varsity ‘D’ race, had Sabine Napolitano go 17:42.3 for a top-50 finish and Stella Napolitano post 18:03.4.
West Genesee, with its SCAC Metro division schedule compete, went to last Friday’s Chittenango Bears Twilight Invitational and finished third in the girls race behind Fayetteville-Manlius and Cicero-North Syracuse.
Rebecca Dickey led the Wildcats, finishing ninth among team runners and 11th overall in 21:20 flat. Juliana Fasulo got to 18th place in 22:03.9, with Shannon McMahon (22:48.3) just ahead of Lily Pellegrino (22:56.9) and Harper Flynn (23:10.0).
On the boys side WG finished fourth on the team side but got a top-10 individual showing from Archer Macholl going 18:29.2. Sean Moser was 17th, posting 18:57.3, with Dillan Holzwarth 22nd in 19:11.3 as Alex Bojarski (19:22.3), David Petrus (19:26.5) and William Madden (19:31.9) also finished in the top 30.
Back in last Wednesday’s league meets, Marcellus faced J-E and won both sides of that race against the Eagles by scores of 21-34 (boys) and 24-32 (girls). =
Then the Mustangs competed Saturday in the Burnt Hills Invitational in Saratoga Springs, where Liam Eldridge put up the best boys time of 17:06.3 and Lorelei Reffler led the girls with a clocking of 22:44.2.
Skaneateles got a sweep in league competition, too, this one against Phoenix, setting the tone in the 18-40 boys win by having Tritan Boucher win in 15:45, nearly a minute and a half ahead of Ben Williams’ second-place 17:14.
Sam Coleman made his way to fourth place in 18:23, beating out Gabe Holmes (18:31) and Oliver Jirousek (18:40) in the next two scoring spots as Sam Olley finished in 21:02.
Over in the girls race Fleckenstein’s swift 19:02 cleared herself from DiRubbo, who was second in 20:13. Rachelle Berube was third in 20:36 and Monica Pohl got fourth in 21:17 as Annabel Wells was sixth in 22:41.
Westhill was involved in a close boys race against Mexico, edged 28-29 by the Tigers largely because it claimed the next three spots behind Edward Popp’s winning 15:26.
Anthony Cardoso did get to fifth place in 17:04, with John-Paul Headd sixth in 17:16. Chris Gilkes, ninth in 17:36, beat out the 17:39 from Alex Tyscka and 18:15 from Owen Mulholland.
The girls race would go 20-40 in Westhill’s favor, with five straight Warrior runners all in a row despite Aubrey Herrington’s 19:35 win for the Tigers.
Sabine Napolitano, in 19:41, was a close second to Herrington, with Reagan Wright third in 22:02 edging Adelina Montato’s 22:03. Isabella Gerasimovich was fifth in 22:56 edging Adeline Alberts (22:57) in sixth place as Claire Sanbury posted 23:45 and Laney Spivey 25:56.
Solvay was overwhelmed by OHSL Liberty National division leader Cazenovia on both sides of that meet, dropping a 15-50 decision in the girls race, Brielle Burke leading her side going 28:28.6.
The boys Bearcats’ 15-46 defeat did include Max Overend taking sixth place in 19:45 and Jordan Lorick finishing seventh in 20:24 as Luke Dickinson ran to 10th place in 20:39.
