The natural cross country rivalry between Westhill-Bishop Ludden and Marcellus resumed again last Wednesday afternoon, and both sides of its went in favor of the Warriors.
Even though the boys Mustangs were no. 10 in the latest state Class C rankings, Westhill-Ludden beat them 16-45, with Jake Suddaby at the forefront as his time of 16 minutes, nine seconds beat the field.
Dan Washburn, in 16:20, beat out Brendan Rewakowski (16:21) for second place as Cade Van Ornam (16:40) completed a top-four sweep. Grayson Hoag led the Mustangs with a clocking of 16:45 ahead of Cahal Donovan (17:11) and Tom Hoey (17:35) as the Warriors had Jack Savage post 17:05, while Alex Ladstatter was eighth in 17:16) and Jacob Roberts was ninth in 17;22.
In the girls meet, Westhill-Ludden, no. 15 in the state Class B rankings, prevailed 21-36 over Marcellus, in large part because it swept the top three spots. Alaina Kenny won the race in a clocking of 19:36, with Maura McAnaney second in 19:42 as Haylei Coolican finished third in 19:43.
To lead the Mustangs, Morgan Gould ran to fourth place in 20:06, with Carolyn Carlic and Madeline Caron each posting 20:48. In between them, Sarah Thompson finished in 20:35 as Kylie Nowicki, in 21:07, beat out Emily O’Reilly (21:12) and Kendra MacCaull (21:16).
Sitting just outside of the top 10 in the state Class A rankings, the West Genesee girls cross country team earned a sweep of last Wednesday’s race at Oneida Shores, defeating host Cicero-North Syracuse 26-33 while also handling Syracuse West 15-50.
In this instance, the Wildcats’ top runners stayed in a pack, allowing the Northstars’ Mia Pestle (20:07) and Annina Marullo (20:36) to finish 1-2 before taking charge as a quartet, starting with Emily Young, who finished third in 20:52.
Just behind her, Mia Mitchell was fourth in 20:53, with Hannah Craybas fifth in 20:56 and Carly Benson sixth in 21:02. Liz Morey’s eighth-place finish in 21:25 clinched it for the Wildcats as she beat out Faith Knox (21:31) and Mikeayla DeJesus (21:34) at the line.
WG’s boys team had a split, also beating Syracuse West 15-50, but falling 21-35 to C-NS despite Sean Byrnes claiming the individual race in 16:58, just ahead of the Northstars’ Nathan Poirier (17:04) as Matt Bartolotta finished third in 17:31. Tony Gettino was fifth in 17:38, but C-NS claimed four of the next five placements around Nathan Couse (18:05) in ninth place for the Wildcats.
Jordan-Elbridge saw its boys team defeat Christian Brothers Academy 24-37 last Wednesday, with Sean Dristle nearly winning the individual race as his time of 14:56 was just behind the Brothers’ Riley Nash, who won in 14:50.
After CBA’s Zach Medicis finished third (15:13), the Eagles had the next six runners on the grid, led by Hugh Schader, who was fourth in 15:24. Jared Alpha got fifth place in 15;32 as Derek Quigley (15:54) beat out Logan Kinney (15:55) and Ethan Kinney (15:56) for sixth place, with Kenney Williams ninth in 15:59.
Solvay went up against Skaneateles and Hannibal last Wednesday, and the girls Bearcats beat the Warriors 27-28 while falling to the Lakers 19-50. Jordyn Willsey led Solvay with a fifth-place time of 22:05 as Skaneateles’ Georgia McSwain won the individual race in 20:20. The Solvay boys lost 15-47 to Skaneateles and 15-53 to Hannibal.
Westhill-Ludden, J-E and Marcellus all ran in the Varsity A division of Saturday’s McQuaid Invitational in Rochester, while West Genesee was in the seeded AAA race as Benson made her way to ninth place in 18:00.3, with Melissa Moran 21st in 18:41.4 and Rachel Ruggerio (18:46.6) in 24th place among team runners.
For the Warriors, Coolican finished 13th, in 19:12.4, with McAnaney (19:59.8) in 30th place and Kenny 37th in 20:13.8. as Tully star Brooke Rauber won in 16:52.4. Theresa Dristle paced the Eagles with a 19th-place time of 19:40 flat as Gould led the Mustangs, finishing 26th in 19:55.4 as Strempel got 45th place in 20:23.4.
In the boys A-2 race at McQuaid, Marcellus, with 249 points, nearly saw Joe Riccardi (who didn’t run against Westhill-Ludden) win the race, as he finished in a time of 15:45.8 to take second place. Ethan Mosure was 25th in 16:37.9. In the AAA race, West Genesee had Byrnes finish 30th among team runners in 15:42.8 ahead of Bartolotta (15:55.4).
J-E finished four points better than Westhill-Ludden in the A division as Sean Dristle was 30th among team runners in 16:32.3 and Schader was 40th in 16:48.8 ahead of Kinney’s 17:10.1. For the Warriors, Rewakowski took 18th place in 16:17.2, with Suddaby posting 16:57.3.
