Fresh off wins earlier in the week, the Canastota cross country teamswent to Jamesville Beach State Park for Saturday’s Chittenango Invitational, essentially a warm-up for the Section III championships to be held on that same course in six weeks’ time.
In the girls Division IV race, Allison Lasnicki finished on top for the Raiders, her time of 18:08.8, just enough to hold off Geneva’s Christine Driscoll, who was second in 18:10.5. Lasnicki’s time was the fastest of any runner in all four of the day’s events.
Overall, the Canastota girls took fourth place with 116 points as Newark Valley (52 points) finished in front. Marissa Williams was 17th (21:36.3), while Francesca Popple got 24th place (22:25.3) and Brittney Goodwin earned 30th place in 22:49.2.
Meanwhile, the boys Raiders were seventh in its Division IV race with 160 points, right in the middle of its 14-team field. Aaron Walker was sixth among individuals with a time of 16:43.7, while Alex Spara got 18th place (17:19.1) and Zach Skolnick (18:12.6) was 36th.
The host team from Chittenango finished eighth in Division I among a field of 14, with 198 points.
Josiah Durfee finished 21st in 17:18.4, while Kevin Carr took 38th (18:28.6), just ahead of Bruce Gondeck (18:31.2) in 39th place. Brad Murray was 67th (19:58.1) and Nick Hanggi (20:59.1) rounded out the scoring.
Chittenango was 10th out of 13 teams in the girls Division I meet, with 249 points. Hannah Murphy finished 35th, in a clocking of 21:54.5, with Jordan Donnelly 52nd (22:55.2) and Sager (22:58.5) in 53rd place. Kelly Anderson (23:21.2) and Alissa Levins-Freeman (23:29.8) were close behind.
In Division II, the Vernon Verona Sherrill girls team finished seventh out of 14 teams with 196 points, as Lauren MacDonald tore her way to sixth place in a time of 20:09.5. Kerry Miley was 38th in 21:47.4, with Emily Hudson (22:46.5) squeezing into the top 50. Oneida raced in Division IV and finished eighth with 195 points, with Erin Durdan running to 25th place in 22:31.7.
VVS got 11th in the boys Division II race as Seth MacDonald surged to 21st place in 17:19.4 and Nathan Faherty (18:10.2) took 45th place. Oneida was 10th in Division IV, even though Conor McCarthy took 15th place (17:11.2) and Joe Casella was 24th in 17:41.8.
Liverpool (Division I), Baldwinsville (Division II) Hilton (Division III) and Rochester McQuaid (Division IV) claimed the boys titles, with Liverpool also winning in the girls Division I meet as Tully (Division II), Hilton (Division III) and Newark Valley (Division IV) joined them.
