It ultimately proved too big of a task for the Cazenovia boys cross country team to unseat its fellow Lakers from Skaneateles atop the Onondaga High School League Liberty division
In last Tuesday’s three-team meet at Long Branch Park in Liverpool, Cazenovia lost, 20-41, to Skaneateles, who holds the no. 11 state Class C ranking, but was able to defeat host Solvay by a 21-34 margin to salvage a split.
Jared Smith, Cazenovia’s top runner, was fresh off a third-place showing in the Small School division of the Oct. 5 Tully Invitational. In 17 minutes, 5.8 seconds, Smith had only trailed CBA’s Michael McMahon (16:38.0) and Hannibal’s Dillon Plantz (16:39.5).
Now Smith would challenge Skaneateles standout Caleb Bender. The pair had gone 1-2 in the Small School race at the Sept. 21 Baldwinsville Invitational and would do so here, too, Smith finishing in 16:31 but Bender (15:38) nearly a minute ahead of him.
Skaneateles swept the rest of the top five with Matt Persampieri (16:38), Joe Norris (17:02) and Will Girzadas (17:40), with Cazenovia’s only other top-10 finish coming from Stan Angus, who in 17.44.2 edged out Skanetaeles’ Josh Reed (17:44.5) for sixth place.
Now Cazenovia went to Saturday’s Bill Coughlin Invitational in Rome, where it finished second in the team standings with 92 points to host Rome Free Academy’s total of 21 points.
Smith, with a time of 17:20.7, got second place behind RFA teammates Nate Sletten (16:28.7) and Nick Ferretti (16:31.6), while Angus finished 12th among team runners (17th overall) in 18:54 flat.
Eric Groff gained 24th in the team standings in a clocking of 20:26.1, just ahead of a Lakers pack that included Quinn Smith (20:29.8), Sean Smithers (20:42.1) and Jacob Ives (20:53.9) as they all finished in the top 30 of the team standings.
