Whatever the West Genesee cross country teams encounter while navigating through the CNY Counties League this fall, it cannot top the difficulty of the opening assignment.
The Wildcats hosted Fayetteville-Manlius last Wednesday afternoon, going head-to-head with the girls program that has won nine of the last 10 Nike Cross Nationals titles. To its credit, WG did place three of the top 10 runners, even though it lost, 18-43, to the Hornets.
Emily Young led WG’s efforts, covering her home course in 19 minutes, 39 seconds. That put Young in third place, with F-M’s Sophia Ryan prevailing in 19:01, pulling away from her teammate, Claire Walters, who was second in 19:29.9.
Four more F-M runners – Phoebe White (19:57.1), Rebecca Walters (20:06), Palmer Madsen (20:36.7) and Reilly Madsen (21:03.8) – followed before the Wildcats’ Mia Mitchell grabbed eighth place in 21:16.8. Hannah Craybas finished ninth in 21:30.3.
During the boys race, where West Genesee lost, 19-44, to F-M, David Leff rose to second place in a time of 16:46.9, though the Hornets’ Patrick Perry won in 16:26.4. The Hornets swept the next six spots in the standings before the Wildcats’ Ryan Dunning finished ninth in 18:28 flat, with Sean Byrnes (18:38.9) getting 10th place.
From there, WG went to Saturday’s Chittenango Invitational, held on the same course where the Section III championships will take place on Nov. 5.
In Race 1, the girls Wildcats prevailed with 47 points, edging out Liverpool, who was second with 50 points. For the most part, the two sides were even, but what made the difference was the runs of Young and Mitchell.
Posting a time of 19:28.4, Young got second place behind Jamesville-DeWitt’s Hannah Butler, who pulled away to win in 18:52.4, while Mitchell gained third place in 19:37.9. No Liverpool runner could fare better than Jenna Schulz’s fifth-place clocking of 19:53.4 as her teammate, Vanessa Eberhard, was sixth in 19:54.9.
WG kept the lead when Carly Benson, in 20:08.5, beat out the Warriors’ Madison Neuner (20:09.3) for seventh place. They were on even terms from there, but with Craybas getting 14th place in 21:05.3 and Kendall Dombroske 21st in 21:36 flat, the Wildcats hung on. Elizabeth Baker (21:50.2) and Elizabeth Morey (22:05.3) also had top-30 finishes.
In the boys Varsity Race 1, West Genesee had 144 points to finish fourth as Baldwinsville (46 points) prevailed.
Dunning led the Wildcats, getting 16th place in 17:34.7, two spots ahead of Byrnes (17:36.7). Paul Stannard was 32nd in 18:23.5, with Patrick Trivison 38th in 18:54 flat, just ahead of Jack Richards (19:01.4), Sean O’Brien (19:12.0) and Tony Gettino (19:22.9).
Jordan-Elbridge and Marcellus also began its season in the Chittenango meet, together in Race 2, right up against F-M, so it knew the top positions, boys and girls, were well out of reach. Still, the boys Mustangs managed a strong second-place finish with 82 points to the Hornets’ 19, with four runners in the top 20.
Joe Riccardi led the Marcellus charge, getting 10th place in 17:26.8. Matt Strempel was 12th, in 17:43.3, with Ethan Mosure 17th (18:08.2) and Sean Raymond 20th (18:18.7) ahead of Michael Welsh, who was 23rd in 18:41.7 to beat out Mike Brown (25th, 18:47.2) and Andrew Marsh (26th, 18:50.6).
Further back, in ninth place, J-E had Ethan Kinney just miss beating the 19-minute mark, finishing 27th in 19:00.1. Hugh Schader got 37th place in 19:20.9, while Jared Alpha (19:41.1) and Sean Dristle (19:48.8) also reached the top 50 ahead of Logan Kinney (20:30.5) and Nate Williams (21:47.4).
In the girls race, Marcellus made it to fourth place in the 13-team field, with 166 points, led by Liliana Cushman, who in 22:22.3 beat out teammate Morgan Gould (22;34.8) for 22nd place;
Crystal Siliman (23:41.0) and Maggie Strempel (23:43.5) were 35th and 36th, respectively for Marcellus,, ahead of Caroline Carlic (24:59.5), Emma Stuart (27:54.2) and Amy Francesconi (29:24.9).
Finishing ninth with 227 points, the J-E girls had Theresa Dristle get to 18th place in 21:10.3. Madison Daly was 42nd, in 24:27.1), clear of Abby Skotniski (25:26.9), Olivia Minikhiem (25:49.1), Delaney Dunham (26:02.6) and Megan Jackson (29:56.1).
