A season ago, the thought of the Liverpool boys cross country team finishing second to anyone, much less its next-door neighbors from Cicero-North Syracuse, was preposterous, as Section III and state Class A championships proved.
Now, though, the Warriors are strong at the top, but lack the depth of the Northstars, something that became quite evident last Wednesday at Oneida Shores, where C-NS fell behind, but raliled to pull it out by a slim 27-30 margin.
As they have done throughout the season, Ty Brownlow and Steve Schulz gave Liverpool an unstoppable duo at the top of the standings. Brownlow covered the Oneida Shores course in 16 minutes, 37.8 seconds, prevailing as Schulz gained second place in 16:41.9.
C-NS started to rally behind Nathan Poirier, who earned third place in 16:48.9, just seven seconds behind Schulz. Then Brandon Martin got fourth place in 17:08.1 and Sam Barber, finishing in 17:15.8, took fifth place.
Though Liverpool’s Emil Videman was sixth in 17:22.5, C-NS clinched it when David Ware took seventh place in 17:40.7 and John Perperian, in 17:43 flat, edged the Warriors’ Josh Hickmott (17:43.9) by less than a second for eighth place. Jason Hughes gave the Northstars a 10th-place finish in 17:49.7.
It was far less suspenseful in the girls meet between Liverpool and C-NS. Here, it was the Warriors possessing the quality depth at the top and using it to pull away and beat the Northstars by a big 19-36 margin.
A big part of it was a 1-2-3 sweep at the top, where Liverpool’s Jenna Schulz won in 19 minutes, 29.2 seconds, well clear of Madison Neuner, who was second in 19:51.5 as Vanessa Eberhard took third place in 20:04.9.
Annina Marullo led C-NS and gained fourth place in 20:29 flat, with teammate Sarah Davis fifth in 20:45.4. But Liverpool added to its margin with Natalie Kurz sixth in 20:52.9 and Windsor Ardner (20:59.1) in seventh place ahead of the Northstars’ trio of Mia Pestle (21:05.8), Emily Dembrowski (21:42.6) and Headan Wilson (21:42.8).
Liverpool had little time to rest, because on Saturday it would compete in both of the featured races at the massive McQuaid Invitaional, whose 51st edition took place at Rochester’s Genesee Valley Park and featured more than 2,800 boys and more than 1,900 girls runners.
Brownlow and Stevie Schulz both would finish with two of the day’s fastest top 10 boys times, Schulz finishing in 14:53 flat and Brownlow in 15:02.7. The pair finished second and fourth, respectively, in the AAA race, ironically with former Cartahge star Noah Affolder (now at Carlisle in Pennsylvania) winning in 14;12.7.
Hickmott got to 10th place in that same race in 15:21.7, helping Liverpool take fourth among 17 teams behind Corning, Ithaca and Niskayuna. Videman finished 43rd in 16:06 flat, ahead of Gaganjot Sekhon (16:41.1), Cullen McLaughlin (16;48.0) and Justin Blowers (16:49.7) in the standings.
Meanwhile, in the girls AAA race, Liverpool’s Jenna Schulz finished fourth in 17:47.4 as Corning’s Jessica Lawson (16:28.2) won with the day’s fastest time. Schulz was sixth overall.
The girls Warriors finished 10th in the AAA team standings, despite Schulz’s run and Eberhard taking 14th place in 18:21.9. Kurz was 46th, in 19:19.1, with Bella Brancato (20:23.0) , Mallory Woytowicz (20:56.8), Rosie Petrella (21:00.3) and Sarah Sedlock (21:39.3) trailing.
