Cross country runners from both Jordan-Elbridge and Westhill/Bishop Ludden took part in last Saturday’s prestigious Manhattan Invitational, held in the Bronx at VanCortlandt Park.

On the girls side, the Eagles’ Abby Gugel made it all the way to fourth place in the Varsity A division, posting a time of 15 minutes, 27.6 seconds on the 4,000-meter VanCortlandt Park course (1,000 meters shorter than a typical high school cross country course) as Kate McCormack (St. John the Baptist) prevailed in 15:07.7.

Much further back, J-E’s Mary Elizabeth Dristle finished 51st, in 17:25.3, followed by teammates Theresa Dristle (17:56.0), Emily Kuehnle (18:47.3) and Maggie DeJohn (20:29.9).

Westhill/Bishop Ludden’s girls earned a spot in the day’s featured race, the Eastern States Championship, where it finished 10th out of 12 sides with 247 points, dropping a tie-breaker with West Genesee for ninth as Fayetteville-Manlius won with 48 points.

Genny Corcoran finished 28th in a clocking of 15:29.4, four spots ahead of eighth-grader Maddie Nowicki, who got 32nd place in 15:36.9. Alaina Kenny was 38th, in 15:47.1, with Annibel Coolican (16:29.2), Mary Kate Washburn (17:12.3), Genevieve Schwartz (17:49.5) and Ciara Hoyne (19:15.8) further back.

Moving to the boys Varsity A race, Westhill/Ludden’s Garnet Remillard made his way to 40th place in 13;54.4. Dan Demauro was 57th, in 14:17.6, with Bryan King (14:45.0), Luke Sekowski (15:13.6), Cain Ballard (15:14.2), Chris Pullano (15:39.5) and Alex Ladstatter (15:43.0) trailing.

J-E’s boys competed in the Varsity C race, where Nathan Hollis, in a time of 13:57 flat, got to 33rd place. Austin Milton, in 14:38.8, was 82nd, followed by Tyler Jackson (15:02.5), Ethan Kinney (15:02.8), Jared Alpha (15:16.7) and Hugh Schader (16:23.1).

Before that, J-E earned a sweep of last Wednesday’s meet with Altmar-Parish-Williamstown. The girls Eagles beat the Rebels 19-42, led once more by Gugel, whose time of 21:06 put her well clear of the Rebels’ Brianna Karboski (20:48), who finished second.

Mary Elizabeth Dristle, finishing third in 23:57, was just ahead of Theresa Dristle (23:58) for that spot. Kuehnle gained fifth place in 25:01 and DeJohn, in 26:27, got to sixth place. Emelia Abar finished eighth in 27:34.

In the boys meet, J-E beat APW 22-37, seeing Hunter Brunell edge Ethan Kinney for the individual title, each of them finishing in 19:19, ahead of the Rebels’ Sage Bartlett (19:25) in third place. Jackson was fifth, in 19:32, with Schader (19:58) getting to sixth place. Brett Siddle (20:50) edged Gunnar Ferris (20:51) for eighth place, with Ryan Chiaramonte 10th in 22:29.

A day earlier, Westhill/Ludden earned a sweep against Phoenix last Tuesday afternoon, winning both sides of that meet with ease as it prevailed 15-49 on the boys side and 15-50 on the girls side.

Sweeping the top six spots in the boys race, Westhill/Ludden saw Sekowski win the individual title in 18:35, with DeMauro second in 18:45. King (18:48) held off Remillard (18:50) for third place.

Ballard, in 19:12, and William Rodgers, in 19:14, finished off that top-six sweep, while Alex Landater made his way to eighth place in 19:35. Xavier Fleurinor finished 10th in 20:10.

Washburn won the individual race, her time of 22:05 putting her one second ahead of Corcoran (22:06) at the finish line. Kenny, in 22:26, edged out Schwartz and Nowicki (22:27 each) for third place. Molly Clark ran well, finishing in 23:26, ahead of a pack that included Maura McGavinty (23:41), Coolican (23:45) and Lisa Morgse (23:49).

Solvay’s boys team lost a narrow 27-28 decision to CBA, with Sammy Kippen second in 15:42.5 to the Brothers’ Dominick Morganti (15:25.3), and Colton Francemone getting third place in 15:44.6.

Two CBA runners crossed the line before Lucas Campbell gained sixth place in 16:59.6, just ahead of Jonah Wheeler (17:06.5) and Duncan Brickner (17:08.0), but CBA’s fifth runner, Cormac Bowman, finished in 17:29.9, ahead of the Bearcats’ Nick Clemente (19:15.3) in 10th place.

In the girls race between Solvay and CBA, the Bearcats’ Jordan Willsey, in 19:23.2, finished second to the Brothers’ Lucy Parson (18:31.3), while Sonya Stanejko got third place in 19:54.1.