In their own unique and wonderful ways, Chris Stogsdill and Elizabeth Dean helped give the Marcellus boys cross country team a sweep of the individual titles at last Friday’s Section III Class B championship meet at Jamesville Beach.
With Stogsdill and Jesse Garn at the forefront, the Mustangs nearly won the boys Class B team title, too. Marcellus picked up 59 points, beating everyone except Westhill, who nudged in front with 53 points.
Nobody could get in front of Stogsdill, though. Despite the fact that it was the last of 10 races being held on Friday, meaning that the Jamesville Beach course was beaten up by the trampling of hundreds of runners, Stogsdill flew away from the field.
And when he crossed the finish line in 15 minutes, 49.6 seconds, Stogsdill had posted the fastest time of the entire sectional meet, beating the 15:56.1 done by Alex Hatz (Fayetteville-Manlius) in the Class AA race an hour earlier.
Garn, like the others in the Class B race, could not keep up with Stogsdill. But the sophomore was superb in his own right, posting a time of 16:36 flat to finish in third place and secure his own ticket to this Saturday’s state championship meet at Sunken Meadow State Park on Long Island. Stogsdill and Garn will run with Bishop Ludden teammates Sean Curry and Nick Barletta, plus New Hartford’s Ryan Millar.
Tom Riccardi made it three runners in the top 10, the junior posting a time of 17:34.8 to finish in 10th place. However, Westhill had all five of its top runners cross the line before sophomore Nate Heath could take 16th place in 17:54.2. Sean Lewandowski was 29th, in 18:33.4, while Owen Dean finished 30th in 18:41.8.
Earlier in the day, eighth-grader Elizabeth Dean continued to flash her talent by winning the Class B girls race in unique fashion.
In the initial stages of the race, while running in a pack, Dean lost one of her shoes. Thus, she was forced to go most of the race with just one shoe, helpless as her other sock turned brown with all the mud kicked up on the course.
Showing her grit and determination, though, Dean kept going and pulled far away from the rest of the field. She finished in 20 minutes, 2.8 seconds, more than 19 seconds ahead of the runner-up, South Jefferson’s Carly VanTassel.
Next weekend, on Long Island, Dean will run with VanTassel, Lauren McDonald (Vernon-Verona-Sherrill), Savannah Boucher (New Hartford) and Leah Williams (South Jefferson) as part of the Section III All-Star unit.
As a team in the Class B meet, Marcellus finished fifth, with 146 points, as Westhill (58 points) held off VVS (67 points) for the top spot.
Freshman Baillie Vensel ran to 20th place, in 22:28.5. Senior Johnna Wiley was 37th (23:41.8), while senior Chloe Brittenham finished 43rd (24:34.2) and freshman Grace Bolewski recorded a 47th-place time of 24:39.7.
