Each of Canastota’s cross country teams contended for the titles at stake in last Saturday’s East Syracuse-Minoa Invitational at Pine Grove.
In the girls meet, the Raiders, no. 4 in the latest state Class C rankings, performed quite well, getting 81 points to finish just ahead of Cazenovia (83 points) for second place. Baldwinsville won with 41 points.
Freshman Francesca Popple paced her team as she crossed the line in 20 minutes, 26.5 seconds, which was good for fourth place. Fellow ninth-grader Allison Lasnicki followed, running to 10th place in 20:56.0.
Leah McDowell, in 16th place (21:25.7), and Ashley Delaney, in 17th place (21:30.5), also cracked the top 20. Tessa Gaglianese (23:32.4) and Brittany Goodwin (23:35.2) were 35th and 36th, respectively, and Christine Dunn (24:52.6) rounded out the team.
Over in the boys varsity meet, Canastota earned third place, with 76 points. Only B’ville (38 points) and the host Spartans (68 points) did better.
Sophomore Rob Argentine went for the individual championship, as his time of 17:03.5 put him in second place behind B’ville’s Brian Lang, who won in 16:49.1.
Yet another star Raider freshman, Aaron Walker, showed his speed by running to fifth place in 17:24.5. Derek Arner was 16th, in 18:32.3, while Jason Rice was 26th (19:17.6) and Alex Spara was 27th (19:20.9). Nate Hopkins (19:52.2) and Brett Durfee (19:55.0) also broke the 20-minute mark.
