By the smallest and biggest margins imaginable, the Fayetteville-Manlius cross country teams lay claim to both New York State Public High School Athletic Association Class A championships.
In a span of two hours at Vernon-Verona-Sherrill High School, the Hornets lay claim to those state crowns in vastly different manners.
Going first, the F-M boys had to fend off fierce challenges from Rush-Henrietta, Shaker and Arlington. It came down to the Hornets and Royal Comets, and with 63 points, F-M beat Rush-Henrietta by a single point. Shaker (81 points) and Arlington (84 points) were close behind.
No doubt, it helped to have junior Nick Ryan way out in front. Competing in the first race of the day, Ryan proved the fastest runner of the entire state meet, covering the 3.2 miles in 16 minutes, 28.4 seconds, beating Victor’s M.J. Erb (16:54.8) by nearly half a minute.
Senior Matt Deyo added valuable points as he tore to third place in 16:58.5, right behind Erb. Senior Ben Thomas was 14th, in 17:18.1, while freshman Bryce Millar was 21st in 17:30.2. All of them finished ahead of Rush-Henrietta’s fourth, fifth and sixth runners.
When junior Connor Farrell crossed the finish line in 18:18.6, he was 36th among team entrants. That helped F-M finish one point ahead of Rush, though junior Colin Fitzgibbons was close behind with his time of 18:25.7. Senior Mike Malone, in a time of 18:45.9, rounded out the F-M column.
And the local heroics didn’t stop there, as in the Class C state race CBA’s Brendan Smith won his own state championship. His time of 16 minutes, 59.4 seconds beat Section III teammate Ian Anderson, from South Lewis, by 13.9 seconds.
When the girls state Class A championship was staged, there was little doubt that F-M would dominate – and it did, getting a perfect score of 15 points to blast past Saratoga Springs (70 points) and the seven other teams present.
Jillian Fanning would win another individual duel with West Genesee’s Laura Leff, as the junior, with a time of 18 minutes, 53.8 seconds, beat Leff (19:33.6) by a comfortable margin.
All of the Hornets’ top five runners finished within the top seven. Senior Katie Sischo rose up to third place in a clocking of 19:35 flat, while Annika Avery’s sensational freshman campaign continued as she gained fourth place in 19:35.5.
Junior Hannah Smith, in sixth place (19:46.9), and sophomore Alana Pearl, in seventh place (19:58.3), both finished ahead of Saratoga’s top runner, Estela Smith, who was 10th. Junior Katie Brislin was 12th, in 20:09.6, while eighth-grader Jenna Farrell earned 13th place in 20:10.8.
In other state races, CBA sophomore Megan Pierce was 13th in Class C in 21:05 flat, while in Class B Jamesville-DeWitt freshman Rachel Fairbanks was 68th in 21:59.8 and East Syracuse-Minoa sophomore Gabby Pallotta was 75th in 22:20.1.
ESM and J-D also had runners in the boys Class B event, where Spartans senior Mike Coogan worked his way to 76th place in 18:44 flat and Red Rams junior Nick Harron was 87th in 18:58.3.
