Each of Chittenango’s cross country teams closed their September slates within the OHSL Liberty division with a clean sweep of last Wednesday’s race against Phoenix and Solvay.
Amid lots of mud churned up by two days of heavy rain before the race, the boys Bears handled the Firebirds 19-42 and the Bearcats 17-44, led by Dave Gratien, who had a first-place time of 18 minutes, 16.29 seconds.
Ersilio Cerminaro was second in 18:21.91, with Dylan Price going 18:47.06 to complete a top-three Chittenango sweep. David Seale gained seventh place in 19:36.71 as Tristan LaFountaine was eighth in 19:42.55 and Devlin Cameron was ninth in 20:02.45.
In the girls race, Chittenango had McKenzie Dombroski lead the way, finishing in 21:35.03 as she ran together with Chelsea Lamphere, who finished second in 21:35.34. McKayla Capeling finished third in 22:17.79 as Piper Beckwith got fourth place in 22:31.06.
Kiara Waite, in 22:43.20, led the next pack of Bears, just ahead of Brooke Price (22:44.64) and Lailah Emad (22:45.06) as Jada Sowich grabbed a time of 24:29.18.
Chittenango’s boys team ran in Saturday’s McQuaid Invitational in Rochester. In the boys Unseeded Varsity AA-2 race, Cerminaro led Chittenango, finishing 13th among team runners in 16:37 flat.
Gratien went 17:19.0 to finish 39th, followed by Price (17:58.2) as Cameron (18:42.8) was just in front of Nate Lampman (18:45.4) and LaFountaine, who posted 18:45.5. David Seale finished in 18:55.6.
The Bears then run this Wednesday at Mexico before closing its regular season Oct. 10 against CBA, with the girls Bears facing the reigning state Class C champions.
