Cazenovia’s cross country team will be represented on both the girls and boys sides when the New York State Public High School Athletic Association championships take place this weekend at Chenango Valley State Park.
Senior James McPherson earned his first trip to the state meet by finishing third in the boys Section III Class C race held last Saturday at Chittenango High School, a finish that matched his team’s best-ever effort in a sectional meet as it got 138 points, trailing only Marcellus (57 points) and Clinton (97 points).
In a time of 17 minutes, 6.2 seconds, McPherson only trailed Christian Brothers Academy’s Dominic Morganti, who won in 16:42 flat, and Canastota’s Adam VanValkenburgh, who was second in 17:00.6 . McPherson, Morganti and VanValkenburgh will join Clinton’s C.J. Militello and Holland Patent’s Chris Selecki on the Section III All-Star team at the state meet.
Led by McPherson, the boys Lakers had 138 points, the same total as Hannibal, but won the third-place tie-breaker by having the better sixth runner, junior Ian Marshall, who in 19:18.3 was 50th in the team standings (53rd overall), well clear of Hannibal’s sixth runner, James Somers, who was 69th in 20:13.6.
Jon Marecek just missed out on qualifying for the state meet as the junior finished in 17:22.2, exactly one second behind Celecki’s 17:21.2 and taking sixth place overall.
Another junior, Nick Barna, was 40th in the team standings (42nd overall) in 19:04.2, with junior Jacob Wells (19:11.0) edging out senior Brendan Coffey (19:11.3) for 44th place on the team side. Junior Jack Gabor finished in 19:26.5 for 56th place in the team standings. Sophomore Zach Wendel finished in 20:20.7, exactly 20 seconds ahead of junior Tony Koppers (20:40.7) as junior Carson Clonan posted a time of 21:17.1.
Earlier, in the sectional Class C girls meet, sophomore Clara Rowles and junior Meggie Hart both posted top-five finishes and joined McPherson in advancing to the state meet.
Rowles finished in 19 minutes, 46.3 seconds, beating everyone except Clinton’s Eva Borton, who pulled away to win in 18:49.9. Then Hart made her way to fourth place in 20:09.4.
So Rowles, Hart and Borton will join two other Clinton runners, Gabrielle Dewhurst (third, 19:47.1) and Emma Novak (fifth, 20:20.6) at the state meet, this after the girls Lakers finished fourth in the sectional meet with 92 points, trailing first-time champion CBA (59 points), Clinton (66 points) and Marcellus (83 points).
Two seniors, Caitlin Clonan and Whitney Denison, ran together for the Lakers, with Clonan taking 27th place in the team standings (30th overall) in 22:36.3 and Denison 28th in the team event (31st overall) in 22:39.1.
Sophomore Jackie Gamlen, in 22:58.2, held off freshman Eleanor Wester (22:58.9) to finish 31st in the team standings and 35th overall. Junior Glenn Hartley was 43rd in the team race (47th overall) in 23:40.6.
