Here, in high school cross country annals, was a rare instance of a regular-season race in league competition that could carry ramifications far beyond its immediate result.
At Long Branch Park on Wednesday, Fayetteville-Manlius would face Liverpool, with the girls Hornets in the rare position of looking up the state Class A rankings as it was no. 3 and the Warriors were in the top spot.
As if that wasn’t enough, there is the boys race where the opposite holds true – F-M is no. 1 in the state rankings and Liverpool is no. 3, creating another highly-anticipated showdown.
Before all this, F-M took on Cicero-North Syracuse last Tuesday, sweeping that meet as it beat the Northstars 15-46 on the girls side and on the boys side.
No one could catch Claire Walters in the girls race as she finished in 18 minutes, 41 seconds, more than half a minute ahead of Grace Kaercher’s second-place 19:19.
Hannah Kaercher was third in 19:45 as Phoebe White, still coming back from an injury, was fourth in 19:51 to beat out C-NS eighth-grader Kate Putman, who finished in 19:55 after she won the East Syracuse Minoa Invitational three days earlier.
Emily Cook, in a clocking of 20:21, finished sixth, while Chloe Bullough (20:40) beat out Lejla Borcilo (20:41) for eighth place as Isabel Crovella was 10th in 20:59.
F-M swept the boys top five, with Matt Tripp going 17:06.9 to edge Sam Otis and Geoff Howles, both of whom finished in 17:07.2.
Peyton Geehrer went 17:07.3 to finish fourth and Garrett Brennan got fifth place in 17:07.6, well ahead of C-NS’s best 17:19.5 by Nathan Poirier. Yakob Kelley was seventh in 17:24.1 and Max Perry got eighth place in 17:34.2.
Christian Brothers Academy had its state Class B no. 5-ranked team follow up its New Hartford Invitational win on Sept. 15 by sweeping a three-team meet last Wednesday against Phoenix and Mexico.
Olivia Morganti pulled away again for a winning time of 20:35. Cory Knox was second in 21:28, with Lea Kyle, in 21:43 flat, beating out Deja Jones (21:43.3) for third place and Bri Pucci fifth in 22:18. Mia Kirch (23:46) led a second group of CBA runners that included Savannah Conway (24:10), Isabella Canizzo (24:23) and Annie Toole (25:06).
The CBA boys team beat both Mexico and Phoenix as Riley Nash won the race in 18:33 flat, just ahead of Zach Medicis (18:33.4) in second place. Adam Kantor, sixth in 19:36, led a pack that included Joel Gaffney (19:46) and John Masinde (19:49).
East Syracuse Minoa met Cortland and Fulton last Wednesday, and swept the girls race with relative ease, prevailing 15-50 over the Purple Tigers and 17-46 over the Red Raiders.
Emma Biel would need 22:37 to claim the individual race, with Spartans teammates Mary Roach (23:40) and Elena Vespi (24:20) completing a top-three sweep.
Then a second pack of ESM runners took over as Taylor Hoffman was sixth in 25:06, with Marissa Drogo seventh in 25:18, beating out Allyama O’Brien (25:22), Marina Lopez (25:33) and Jazmin Tyo (25:34).
Nick Berg, who won the boys ESM Invitational on Sept. 15, won this race, too, in 17:11.13. However, the Spartans lost both team sides, 24-31 to the Purple Tigers and 23-32 to the Red Raiders, only having one other top-10 runner as Michael Sanders finished ninth in 19:24.71.
In Thursday’s action, Jamesville-DeWitt dominated against Auburn and Syracuse West on both sides.
The boys Class B no. 8-ranked Red Rams had a top-three sweep, Nick Mannion prevailing in 17:39 by two seconds over Jaleel Boykins (17:41) as Luke Hobika got third place in 18:10. Ahviere Reese was fifth (18:16) and Nate Rindfuss sixth (18:46) as Fidel Martinez (19:09) and Michael Sizing (19:11) were just behind.
The J-D girls had Sophia Vinciguerra winning the race in 21:46 as part of a top-four sweep with Madeline Foss (22:17), Abby Palin (22:36) and Amelia Gilbert (23:46). Amanda Semmel finished sixth in 24:07, with Kathryn Sizing seventh in 24:25. Emma Kravec (24:32) and Stella Heflin (24:44) also had top-10 finishes.
