Here was the moment for the Chittenango boys cross country team to spotlight itself in a manner rarely seen before.
Not only were the Bears hosting last Saturday’s Section III championships, it was one of the favorites in the boys Class B division, expected to challenge the likes of New Hartford for top honors.
Despite an all-out effort, Chittenango, with 110 points, had to settle for third place in the overall Class B standings, just behind runner-up Carthage (105 points) as New Hartford, with 63 points, claimed the top spot.
However, the Bears did finish on top of the nine-team Class B-2 division with 48 points, ahead of Westhill-Bishop Ludden (66 points) and Vernon-Verona-Sherrill (70 points) when all the scores were tallied.
Setting the pace for Chittenango, Mike Capeling was eighth overall and third in Class B-2 in 17 minutes, 26.7 seconds, trailing only VVS’s Owen Walker (16:34.7) and Homer’s Grant Stokoe (17:09.6) among the B-2 individuals and two spots from advancing to this weekend’s state championship meet at Chenango Valley State Park.
Phillip Abell, in a time of 17:48.1, beat out teammate Ersilio Cerminero (17:49.5) for 14th place overall as they were fifth and sixth, respectively, in B-2. Karl Farber was ninth in B-2 and 19th overall in 17:53.3, with Dave Gratien taking 25th place in B-2 in 18:48.3, just ahead of Grant Czarnecki (27th, 18:54.1) and Matt Morak (18:55.7) in the B-2 standings.
Chittenango and New Hartford had gone head-to-head a week earlier in the Oct. 29 John Bernard Invitational at Adirondack High School in Boonville, where with 54 points the Bears were runner-up to the Spartans (45 points) in the Varsity 2 race.
Capeling was fourth in that race in a time of 18:07.7, just ahead of Cerminero (18:09.9), but they trailed New Hartford’s Josh Farmer, who won in 17:19.8 as a preview for eventually winning the sectional Class B race on the Chittenango course in 16:26.4.
The Spartans also saw Troy Henderson finish sixth and Garrett Jones take seventh place at Adirondack in front of Abell, who gave the Bears a 10th-place clocking of 18:33 flat as Farber finished 11th in 18:36.1 and two more New Hartford runners beat Morak (24th, 19:22.4) and Gratien (25th, 19:22.7) to the line.
Back at the sectional Class B girls meet, host Chittenango was 12th in the 15-team overall Class B standings with 285 points as Westhill-Ludden (41 points) edge Jamesville-DeWitt (50 points) for the top spot despite the Red Rams’ Hannah Butler taking the individual race in 19:16.6.
For the Bears, who were sixth in the Class B-2 standings, McKenzie Dombroski had the best showing as she was 11th in the B-2 standings and 22nd overall in a clocking of 21:48.7. Eryn Thompson was 23rd in B-2 in 23:49.5, ahead of Devin Gordon (25:12.8), Jada Sowich (25:45.4) and Maddy Heller (26:47.2).
In the other sectional meets held on the Chittenango course, Fayetteville-Manlius, winners of nine of the last 10 Nike National crowns, took the girls Class A title as Claire Walters broke the course record with a time of 17:59 flat, but F-M finished second to Liverpool in boys Class A for the second year in a row.
Moving to Class C, Marcellus ran away with the boys team title, while Christian Brothers Academy claimed its first-ever sectional championship in girls Class C. The Class D races were close, but South Lewis prevailed on the girls side and Sauquoit Valley won on the boys side.
