Verona — Though far from the powerful entry of seasons past, the Skaneateles girls cross country team still had dreams of glory as it ventured to Vernon-Verona-Sherrill High School for Saturday’s Section III Class C championship meet.
And those dreams were partially realized, at least in terms of seeing its top girls runner, junior Julia Willcox, earn a trip to Monroe-Woodbury to compete in the New York State Public High School Athletic Association race with a strong group of sectional All-Star competitors.
Outside of the team battle, where Cazenovia (56 points) edged Jordan-Elbridge (59 points), the top five individuals would advance, meaning that the first through seventh spots were golden since Cazenovia had Clara Rowles in second place (19:41.4) and Meggie Hart (20:47.0) in fifth place.
Willcox could not quite keep up with Rowles and J-E’s Abby Gugel, who won the individual title in 19:37 flat. But in 20 minutes, 34.5 seconds, Willcox did grab fourth place, so she joins Gugel, J-E teammate Theresa Dristle (21;01.6), and the Clinton duo of Gab Dewhurst (who was third in 20:04.7) and Eva Borton (21:04.3) in heading for Monroe-Woodbury.
From a team standpoint, Skaneateles culminated its season-long improvement, taking fifth place in a field of 10 with 109 points, trailing Cazenovia, J-E, Clinton and Hannibal.
Senior Finan Malcolm rose up and took 20th place in a time of 22:23.6. Freshman Morgan Dodds finished 28th, in 22:53.6, while sophomore Natalie Condon made her way to 28th place in 22:53.6. Senior Jillian Vanleer got 52nd place in 24:28.4.
Meanwhile, in the boys sectional Class C race at VVS, no Skaneateles individual got close to Willcox’s fourth-place effort, and the Lakers, with 248 points, earned ninth place in the 17-team field, where Marcellus (67 points) edged Clinton (82 points) at the top.
Sophomore Kai Soderberg made his way to 21st place in 18:11.4, though that was far off the winning time of 16:21.3 posted by Hannibal’s Jason McFarland. Fellow sophomore Joey Brillo was 28th, in 18:31.6, while senior Steve Ciaccio was 63rd in 19:35.5.
Junior Joe Cappoza, who was 75th in 19:55 flat, was just ahead of sophomore Max Hall (19:55.4) and junior Calvin Blackwell (19:56.1), and they were in front of senior Chris Niebuhr (20:04.3), junior Alex Wulff (20:45.9) and senior Dominic Grasso (20:54.4).