No matter that the Fayetteville-Manlius boys cross country team still sat behind Liverpool in the latest edition of the state Class A rankings.

Three times, the Hornets and Warriors faced each other in an eight-day span of October, and twice the Hornets won, first in a head-to-head battle on Oct. 7, and then again exactly one week later in Wednesday’s CNY Counties League championship meet at Baldwinsville.

With a total of 30 points, the Hornets topped the Warriors’ total of 43 points, again depending on its depth at the head of its lineup as it earned five of the fastest 11 times in the meet to compensate for Liverpool’s Ben Petrella prevailing in 14 minutes, 51.3 seconds.

Peter Ryan finished second, in 15:05.2, keeping in touch with Petrella as Patrick Perry got third place in 15:05.7 and Bryan Geehrer was fourth in 15:14.4.

Though Liverpool’s Ty Brownlow (15:25.4) and Steve Schulz (15;30.2) were seventh and eighth, respectively, F-M locked up team honors when Ben Otis took 10th place in 15:34.8 and Joe Walters finished 11th in 15:42.5 ahead of the fourth and fifth Warriors runners. Jack Boltman was 16th, in 16:08 flat, while Brendon Pearl was 22nd in 16:21.8, ahead of Mark Vaccaro (16:36.1) in 32nd place and Eli Capri (16:38.9) in 34th place.

Back from whipping the Manhattan Invitational field in New York City on Oct. 10, the F-M girls cross country team went to work against the local sides again, dominating its part of the CNYCL meet.

Of the top 19 runners, 13 of them wore Hornets green, and Kaitlyn Neal led the charge, speeding to victory in 16 minutes, 43.9 seconds, faster than the 16:48.6 she posted on the same course during the Baldwinsville Invitational on Sept. 26.

Sophia Ryan got to second place in 16:54.1, while Claire Walters was third in 17:00.7 and Palmer Madsen finished fourth in 17:08.5. Only West Genesee’s Carly Benson, in fifth place (17:10.5), prevented a Hornets sweep of the entire top 10.

Rebecca Walters, in 17:16.4, led the second F_M wave, ahead of Samantha Levy (17:31.0), Jenna Farrell (17:33.6), Phoebe White (18:04.2) and Megan Menz (18:07.0). Reilly Madsen (18:20.4) beat out Christy Berge (18:34.1) for 12th place, with Keita Peden 17th (18:59.2) and Alexis Villalba (19:01.1) in 19th place.