Twice in a span of four days, the Cicero-North Syracuse cross country team would venture east, into the Mohawk Valley, looking for victories.

First, the Northstars had its dual meet with Rome Free Academy last Wednesday afternoon. CNS won 17-46 on the girls side and 16-45 on the boys side.

In the girls race, Katie Duerr, Taylor Wendler and Alicia Finger ran to the line together to get past RFA star Hannah Hoffman. Duerr won, in 20:04, one second ahead of Wendler (20:05), while Finger claimed third place in 20:07 as Hoffman (20:20) was third.

Lindsay Raulli, in fifth place (21:18), led the next CNS pack. Lauren Slocum was sixth (21:22), while Ashley Messur was seventh (21:31), Lizzie McAndrew eighth (21:37) and Alicia Greco got ninth place in 21:41.

Over in the boys meet, much the same thing happened, as the top nine runners were separated by just 16 seconds and CNS needed every one of its stars to produce.

Kyle Fritz would win the sprint to the finish, his time of 17:31 a full second ahead of Kevin Cusworth (17:32), while Ben Ludovici and Nathan MacNabb claimed the next two spots in 17:33.

Andy Neumeister (17:42) and Nick Dunbar (17:47) were sixth and seventh, respectively, while Chris Taddeo earned ninth place in 17:54 and Aaron Reardon, in 18:04, earned 10th place.

On Saturday, both CNS teams went to Utica’s Proctor Park for the annual E.J. Herrmann Invitational.

Again, the girls Northstars came out on top, putting up 26 points in the Elite division to beat Colonie (Section II) for the championship.

Duerr and Wendler went 1-2 as Duerr prevailed in a time of 20:03.7 to edge out Wendler (20:05.5) and earn the individual crown. Finger was sixth (20:28.6), while Slocum got 10th place (21:00.7) and Raulli was 11th (21:03.8) to close out the scoring. Messur was quick, too, with a 15th-place time of 21:22.7.

CNS had a two-pronged strategy in the boys event. It finished second in the Elite division, with 46 points, to a Canadian entry from Thousand Island (31 points), but won the Varsity A division with 44 points over Colonie (56 points).

MacNabb was third in the Elite race in 16:51.9 and Ludovici was fourth, in 16:54.3. Fritz took 11th (17:44.1), followed closely by Neumeiseter, in 13th (17:48.8), and Cusworth, who was 15th in 17:54.8.

Meanwhile, James Thurn’s fifth-place finish in 18:07.7 helped the Varsity A division Northstars along. Wesley Kufel was seventh (18:20.1) and Matt Perkins eighth (18:27.9), while Joe Losito got 11th (18:40.4) and John Smith ran to 13th place in 18:55.1.