As they seem to do each fall, cross country runners from Liverpool and Cicero-North Syracuse would have a large presence in Saturday’s New York State Public High School Athletic Association Class A championships.
This year’s state meet took place at SUNY-Plattsburgh, where snow covered the ground and temperatures were in the 20s at the time the races got underway.
In the girls state Class A race, two Liverpool stars, senior Jenna Schulz and junior Sydney Carlson, were part of the field, as was C-NS freshman Kate Putman.
The North Carolina State-bound Schulz was sensational, covering the 2.8-mile Plattsburgh course (shortened from 3.1 miles due to safety concerns) in 16 minutes, 14.2 seconds, the fourth-fastest time of the entire day.
Among Class A runners, Schulz was third behind North Rockland’s Katelyn Tuohy (15:36.5) and Fayetteville-Manlius’ Claire Walters (16:01.8), with Walters again leading F-M to a state championship after it lost by one point to Saratoga Springs in this same race in 2018.
Meanwhile, Putman and Carlson had strong races, too. In a time of 17:39.5, Putman claimed 27th place, while Carlson made her way to 36th place in 17:53.3. Together, they, along with Schulz, Miranda Gilbert (Oswego, 37th) and Emily Toth-Ratazzi (Rome Free Academy), helped Section III finish second in the team event behind Section II.
Earlier, the boys state Class A race featured Liverpool junior Carter Rodriguez, whose sensational race helped propel Section III to a state team title as it earned 193 points to Section II’s runner-up total of 305 points.
It was the first race of the morning, with the wind chill still in single digits, but Rodriguez tore through the Plattsburgh course in 14 minutes, 53.1 seconds, which put him seventh, not far from the winning 14:32.7 by Warwick Valley’s Behailu Bekele-Arcuri.
Rodriguez led a group of Section III All-Stars that had Rome Free Academy’s Nick Ferretti tearing to ninth place in 14:54.5 as Ferretti’s teammate, Nate Sletten finished 16th in 15:04 flat.
West Genesee’s Matt Bartolotta, in his third state meet, got 22nd place in 15:10.7, and the team title was clinched when Baldwinsville’s Jack Michaels finished 36th in 15:18.5.
In addition to all this, F-M, who repeated as state Class A champions, had three of the top five individual finishers in Peyton Geehrer (second, 14:35.5), Sam Otis (third, 14:39.5) and Geoff Howles (fifth, 14:50.5).
Section III dominated the state meet as a whole. Aside from F-M,Camden in Class C girls and Beaver River in Class D boys won team championships.
Also, Section III won five of the eight sectional team competitions to go with individual wins by Caleb Bender (Skaneateles, boys Class C), Elizabeth Lucason (Camden, girls Class C) and Tully’s Brooke Rauber, who took her fourth straight state Class D crown.
