When it comes to regular-season cross country meets, few were as big as what took place Wednesday afternoon at Long Branch Park.
On one side was Fayetteville-Manlius, the reigning state Class A champions. On the other was Liverpool, the reigning Federation champions, running on its home course. Baldwinsville served as a third participant, but the real battle was between the Hornets and Warriors.
Not only did they hold prestigious titles from 2013 and occupied the top two spots in the state rankings (plus top-10 national consideration), but they also had most of their runners back from last season, adding to the tension before the gun sounded.
But once they started running, it was clear that F-M remained the one to catch, snaring four of the top five finishing spots and breaking some records along the way as it beat Liverpool 19-37 and also swept B’ville by a 15-50 margin.
Back from claiming the individual state title last November in Queensbury, Bryce Millar went right to work again, tearing through the Long Branch course in 15 minutes, 12.1 seconds, which smashed the course record of 15:37 set by Tully’s Dominick Luca 12 years ago.
Peter Ryan also broke Luca’s course record, finishing in 15:14.3, just 2.2 seconds behind Millar, and beating out Liverpool’s Ben Petrella, who got third place in 15:32.4, the best time any Warriors runner has recorded at Long Branch.
Before any of the Warriors’ other stars could finish, though, F-M locked up the race by having Adam Hunt get third place in 15:39.1 and Kyle Barber take fifth place in 15:44 flat.
Riley Hughes closed out the scoring for the Hornets, earning seventh place in 16:00.3 between the Warriors’ Connor Buck in sixth (15:54) and ahead of Dan Muldoon (16:14) and Dylan McCarthy (16:27). Patrick Perry got 10th place in 16:43.3.
This was a rare instance where F-M’s long-dominant girls cross country team took second billing, but the Hornets, determined to reclaim the Nike Nationals crown it relinquished one year ago, had little trouble rolling past Baldwinsville 15-49 and Liverpool 15-50 in its season opener at Long Branch.
Annika Avery, leading the way, won the race in 18:30 flat, leading a Hornets sweep of the top six spots before B’ville’s Marissa Lathrop (19:48.6) slid into seventh place.
Samantha Levy led the pack chasing Avery, making her way to second place in 18:45.2, while another F-M veteran, Jenna Farrell, claimed third place in 18:55.3.
Olivia Ryan continued her improvement, going to fourth place in 19:28.6, while Reilly Madsen (19:46.3) completed the top-six sweep. Mackenzie Pierie, in 19:49.7, worked her way to eighth place in front of Megan Menz, who was ninth in 19:50.8.
