Consider what transpired Wednesday at Long Branch Park as the first act in a prolonged drama that won’t resolve itself until later in the autumn.
Cross country powers collided when Liverpool hosted Fayetteville-Manlius, and in the featured girls race the state Class A no. 1-ranked Warriors dropped a narrow 26-29 decision to the no. 3-ranked Hornets.
Circumstances had much to do with this outcome. Liverpool was just beginning a busy eight-day stretch that included a spot in the featured race at Rochester’s McQuaid Invitational and a rescheduled meet against Cicero-North Syracuse.
F-M had none of these things in front of them, and the 11-time national champions were motivated enough by looking up at the Warriors in the state rankings.
Hornets junior Claire Walters, in particular, took that as a spur to something special. In 17 minutes, 41.4 seconds, Walters shattered by nearly half a minute the course record of 18:09 Liverpool’s Jenna Schulz established just a week earlier in a win over Baldwinsville.
For her part, Schulz fought her way to second place in 18:22.8 and Madison Neuner was fourth in 18:48.3, but F-M stayed in front by having Grace Kaercher get third place in 18:40.7 and Phoebe White finish fifth in 18:57.3.
Even with Windsor Ardner taking eighth place in 19:51.4 and Emily Neuner getting ninth place in 19:58.5, the Hornets held on, with Hannah Kaercher seventh in 19:22.7 and Lejla Borcilo (20:12.1) and Emily Cook (20:23.1) ahead of the Warriors’ Gabby McCarthy (20:32.1) in 12th place.
Both Liverpool and F-M easily defeated the third team in the race, West Genesee, who were no. 22 in the latest state Class A rankings. As a showcase of the depth of the Hornets and Warriors, the Wildcats’ top runner, Faith Knox, could only manage an 18th-place finish in a time of 21:04.2.
This followed a boys race where F-M turned back Liverpool 20-35, even though one of the Hornets’ best runners, Garrett Brennan, missed the race due to illness.
All that seemed to do, though, was motivate F-M’s other top performers as they swept the top four, led by Geoff Howles, who won in 15:58.4 as Sam Otis was second (16:09.5), beating out Peyton Geehrer (16:11.4) and Matt Tripp (16:12.8) in that pack.
It was Nathan Reeves who paced the Warriors, finishing fifth in 16:29.6. Then Carter Rodriguez, who finished seventh in 16:36 flat, led a Liverpool pack that included Jake McGowan (16:39.0), Spencer Ruediger (16:54.2) and Nick Brancato (16:54.6) as T.J. Praschunus was 12th in 17:10.3 and Ryan Cartwright (17:28.60 finished 14th.
Liverpool did defeat West Genesee on both sides of this meet to salvage a split as they now turned their attention to Saturday’s McQuaid Invitational, where on the girls side the Warriors would clash with, among others, state no. 2-ranked Shenendehowa.
