Alex Hatz is back, and that puts the Fayetteville-Manlius boys cross country team at full strength as its most important races lie ahead.
Hatz had kidney surgery in August, and the recuperation kept the Hornets’ senior on the sidelines for a full month.
In his first race back, Hatz and his F-M mates faced a partial course against Oswego, but still dominated with 15-50 wins over the Buccaneers on both the boys and girls side.
With at time of 13 minutes, seven seconds, Hatz edged past Paul Sargrad (13:08) at the wire. Brendan Farrell was third and Paul Merriman fourth, each in a time of 13:13, as Connor Farrell got fifth place in 13:19. Tim Duett (13:32), Andrew Roache, Owen Strong (13:33 each) and Ben Thomas (13:34) also reached the top 10.
In the girls race, Katie Sischo worked her way to the top in 15 minutes, 28 seconds, comfortably ahead of Gennie Ariotti (15:44) in second place.
Katie Covertino was third, in 15:56, with Courtney Chapman (16:01) and Mackenzie Carter (16:02) rounding out the top five. Heather Martin was sixth (16:04) and Melissa Haggerty seventh, in 16:05. Maggie Malone took ninth place (16:14) as Jillian Fanning was 10th in 16:41.
