For more than a decade, the Fayetteville-Manlius girls cross country has turned the extraordinary into the routine, each early December marked by a cross-country trip resulting in another national championship.
Yet the Hornets’ 11th conquest of the Nike Cross Nationals in Portland, Oregon, may have topped the 10 that have come before, both in terms of the close nature of competition and the adversity overcome in the days leading up to Saturday’s big race.
As usual, head coach Bill Aris brought a heavily favored F-M side to Portland, but at the worst possible time two senior leaders of the squad, Sophia Ryan and Rebecca Walters, fell ill.
For Ryan, who suffered from food poisoning, it got so bad that she had to go to the hospital and get several IV fluids, not getting released until hours before the race. Walters did not need hospitalization, but she had been ailing for several days.
Yet Ryan and Walters were both on the starting line Saturday, joined by sophomores Claire Walters and Phoebe White, plus seniors Palmer Madsen and Alex Villalba and freshman Grace Kaercher.
And despite all they had gone through, Ryan and Rebecca Walters would finish in the individual top 50. Ryan posted 18 minutes, 39.1 seconds, getting 43rd place and 16th among team runners, while Walters posted 18:44.2 for 49th place overall and 20th place among team runners.
That backed up what Claire Walters did as she roared to a fifth-place time of 17:55 flat and was second in the team standings, while White made her way to fifth place in the team event and 15th overall in 18:05.5.
Despite all this, F-M found itself in a battle for the national title with North Naperville, from the Chicago suburbs in Illinois, who had three of the top 11 team runners in Sarah Schmitt (17:57.2), Alex Morris (17:59.4) and Hannah Ricci (18:31.5).
When Megan Driscoll finished 33rd (19:05.2) and Claire Hill got 43rd place (19:13.4) in the team standings, North Naperville had 94 points on the board. F-M, at that point, had 43 points.
So in order to win, F-M needed a runner to finish 50th or better in the team standings, and Madsen pulled it off, taking 46th place in 19:14 flat to have the Hornets finish with 89 points, five points clear. Kearcher finished in 19:58.8 and Villalba posted 20:48.3.
Earlier that same day, F-M’s boys team, projected for a mid-pack finish at the Nike Nationals, nearly won it all, rising to second place with 159 points as Purcelville, from Loudoun Valley, Virginia, won with 89 points.
Aris said his runners put together “the race of their life”, and that started with junior Garrett Brennan, who finished 18th in the team standings, and 46th overall, in 15:54 flat.
Senior Ben Otis posted 16:00.1 to get to 56th place overall and 25th in the team event, while junior Matt Tripp was less than a second behind Otis, getting 27th in the team event and 58th overall in 16:01.0.
Sophomore Geoff Howles finished 34th among team runners with his clocking of 16:11.1. Senior Jack Duncanson was 55th in the team race in 16:25.3 as ninth-grader Peyton Geehrer posted 16:37.6 and junior Sam Otis finished in 17:15.4.
All of this was part of a triumphant day for New York State runners in Portland, as North Rockland’s sophomore sensation, Katelyn Tuohy, won the girls national title, shattering the course record with her time of 16:44.7 as she beat the field by more than 40 seconds.
Among local runners, Tully’s Brooke Rauber finished sixth, and tops among ninth-graders, with her time of 17:56.7, while Liverpool got 13th place in the 22-team girls national event as Jenna Schulz led the Warriors, finishing 19th overall in 18:08.7.
