In many ways, both physical and spiritual, the Liverpool boys cross country team peaked on Nov. 4, the day it defended its home turf by stunning Fayetteville-Manlius to win the Section III Class AA championship.
It was impossible for the Warriors to provide a sequel on par with that — but it came pretty close, running its way to third place at last Saturday’s New York State Public High School Athletic Association championship meet.
When the scores were counted, Liverpool had 80 points, edging past the hosts from Warwick Valley (83 points) for the third spot. Shenendehowa (Section II) won, with 42 points, with Smithtown (66 points) in second place.
Senior Colin Heenan was the Warriors’ top individual performer, putting up a 22nd-place time of 16 minutes, 8.1 seconds, just ahead of junior Ethan Hickey, who was 28th in 16:18.4.
Another junior, Bryan Picciotto, also had a strong race, getting 31st place in 16:22.2, while senior Mike Compson was 37th in 16:27.4. Senior Nick Scalione got 46th place (16:42.3), and junior Dan Szilagyi was 79th, in 17:16.5.
