Even by the terms of routine greatness that it offers every single autumn, the Fayetteville-Manlius girls cross country team accomplished something special during Saturday’s New York State Public High School Athletic Association Class A meet at Monroe-Woodbury High School.

The Hornets’ latest state championship was its 10th in a row, which was a monumental feat unto itself, but the fact that an eighth-grader, Claire Walters, led the way makes it even more remarkable.

Even though Kaitlyn Neal had won the Section III Class A race Nov. 7 at Vernon-Verona-Sherrill, she was still recuperating from injuries sustained while hit by a car on a morning run.

But just like so many other times in F-M’s dominant decade-long run, other runners were ready – especially Walters, who would go to Monroe-Woodbury and duel head-to-head with Corning star Jessica Lawson.

Despite Lawson’s much longer track record, Walters managed to beat her to the finish line, finishing in 17 minutes, 53.5 seconds, the fastest time of the state meet, just 0.3 seconds ahead of Lawson’s 17:53.8.

Neal ran well, too, going 18:20.8 to finish fourth among team runners and seventh overall as F-M, with 28 points, again pulled away from Saratoga Springs (77 points) and the rest of the challengers.

Rebecca Walters took fifth place in the team race and ninth overall in 18:20.8. Samantha Levy got to 13th place in 18:47.7 and was eighth on the team side, with Sophia Ryan posting 18:51.5 for a 10th-place team score and 15th overall.

Not far behind them, Palmer Madsen made her way to 22nd place, and 14th in the team standings, with a time of 19:06.8, with Jenna Farrell getting to 26th place (16th among team runners) in 19:14.3.

F-M also helped Section III claim the team title on both the girls and boys sides, with Patrick Perry getting to 12th place in the boys Class A race in 16:20.9 as Liverpool followed up its win over the Hornets by claiming the team state title, too, Ben Petrella prevailing in a Monroe-Woodbury course-record 15:43 flat.

Meanwhile, in the Class B state races, East Syracuse Minoa’s duo of Natalie Marra and Matt Young both had superb efforts.

Marra, in a time of 19:02.6, finished fifth, not far from the winning 18:15.6 posted by North Shore’s Diana Vizza and just ahead of Whitesboro’s Justyna Wilkinson (19:08.1) in sixth place, while Jamesville-DeWitt’s Hannah Butler got to 26th place in 19:57.3.

Young, for his part, rose to 10th place in the boys state Class B race in 16:47.1, a race won by Carthage’s Noah Affolder in 15:57.2.

And in the Class C race, Christian Brothers Academy’s Dominic Morganti earned 30th place in 17:25 flat, while four Section III runners cracked the top 20, led by Hannibal’s Jason McFarland, who finished fourth in 16:32.5.