A single season away from the top of the OHSL Liberty division was far too much time — at least in the minds of the Skaneateles girls cross country team.
And with one more stellar effort in last Wednesday’s meet at the Polo Fields, the Lakers returned to the throne, holding off Cazenovia 25-30 as it also routed Homer 17-46 to finish 8-0 in league competition.
Cazenovia, coming into the event at 5-1, posed the only remaining threat, and it took a 1-2 finish by the western Lakers to make it all work.
Rachel Hosie, fresh off her impressive victory at the Oct. 11 East Syracuse-Minoa Invitational, won again here with a time of 18 minutes, 51 seconds. Right behind her, Christie Barnett landed in second place in 19:17, beating both of the eastern Lakers’ top runners, Kiley Evans (19:33) and Kara Cannizzaro (20:11).
Alexis Mazzeo landed in seventh place in 20:46, just ahead of Beatrice Walton, who was ninth in 21 minutes flat.
In the boys race, where Skaneateles tied Cazenovia 28-28 and lost to Homer 20-42, Calvin Davis went to the front and stayed there, winning in 16 minutes, 52 seconds, nearly half a minute ahead of Cazenovia’s Pat Dermody (17:18) at the wire.
Homer dominated most of the top-10 spots, though, and Steve Tucker was the only other Skaneateles runner to do so well, finishing eighth in 18:41.
Each of the Skaneateles teams will make the short trip to Cato-Meridian High School for next Wednesday’s Onondaga High School League championship meet.
