Each of the East Syracuse Minoa cross country teams would find success during last Saturday’s meet against the visiting Chittenango Bears.
On the girls end, the contest was closer, with the Spartans leaning on a top-three individual sweep to counteract Chittenango’s superior depth and prevail 26-31.
Leading the way, Elena Vespi crossed the finish line in 22 minutes, six seconds, comfortably ahead of Mary Roach, who was second in 22:28 as Ainsley McKenna finished third in 22:33.
McKayla Capeling, fourth in 22:54, led a pack of three Bears runners, so it took Taylor Hoffman finishing seventh in 23:24, a second ahead of Chittenango’s Kiara Waite, to help her side hang on.
With a little more margin, ESM’s boys handled Chittenango 20-40, and here the depth came after an individual victory from the Bears’ Caleb LeBlanc, who posted 18:50.
Logan Michaels got second place in 19:07, just ahead of John Courcy (19:14) in third place as Spencer Carnival made his way to fourth place in 19:22.
It still took Thomas Walters (19:48) and Aidan O’Brien (20:22) to clinch the team honors ahead of Paul Engineri (20:31) in seventh place as Joe Podroso-Garcia posted 21:31.
Back on Wednesday, Christian Brothers Academy met up with Manlius-Pebble Hill, and the Brothers claimed both sides of that meet.
It was close on the boys side, CBA prevailing 23-32 as Michael McMahon and Cooper Groat went 1-2, McMahon crossing the finish line in 17:36, nearly half a minute ahead of Groat’s 18:05.
MPH contended thanks to Will Markwood finishing third in 18:26 and Oliver Dreyfuss getting fourth place in 18:40, while the Trojans’ J.J. Braverman was sixth in 19:25.
To hang on, the Brothers needed Joe McMahon to finish fifth in 18:46 as Andrew Cooney (21:14) and Nick Newman (22:19) were seventh and eighth, respectively, ahead of MPH’s Sun-Jin Sah (22:30) and Jacob Temes (22:58).
CBA’s girls won by a 15-50 margin led by Kayla Newman, who finished in 21:21 to hold off teammate Bella Cannizzo, who was second in 21:25 as Mary Sullivan (23:46) finished third.
Tea Hokanson gave MPH a fourth-place finish in 24:05, followed by a CBA pack led by Abby Nash in 24:59. Juila Medicis, in 25:19, was ahead of Ella Zarishi (27:15), Jenna Filhan (29:30) and Ava Goeman (29:39).
