Vernon Verona Sherrill served as the host site for Tuesday’s Tri-Valley League cross country championships, with the host Red Devils and Oneida seeking high finishes.
In fact, the VVS girls team would rise to third place, earning 75 points, in a close contest where New Hartford beat Holland Patent by a single point, 45-46, to finish in front. Oneida was seventh with 176 points.
Lauren MacDonald led the Red Devils, taking fourth place in 21 minutes, 1.7 seconds as Whitesboro’s Katie day took top individual honors in 20:03.5.
Casey Kane helped MacDonald as she finished 10th in 22:17.5, while Kerry Miley was 15th (22:44.9) and Emily Hudson was 17th in 23:05.4. Becky Talbot, in 29th place (23:43.3) rounded out the VVS grid as Kayla Fazekas (37th, 24:05.3) and McKenna Novak (46th, 24:59.2) followed.
Oneida saw Sara Rifendifer post the best individual time as she took 14th place in 22:31.0, the only Indians runner within the top 30.
Behind her, Kelsey Hatch was 32nd, in 23:55.9. Erin Durdan (25:15.3) was 51st, followed by Kim DeCarr (25:51.6), Brittany Agan and Sarah Nichols.
In the boys version of the Tri-Valley championships on the future site of the 2010 Section III and 2011 state meets, VVS finished fourth, with 99 points, and Oneida was seventh (173 points) as Holland Patent, with 20 points, dominated the meet.
For the Red Devils, Seth MacDonald, in a time of 17 minutes, 43.6 seconds, had the best time not from a Golden Knights runner, taking fourth place as HP teammates Dylan and Cody Racha each hit the line in 17:15.6 and Robert Baird (17:37.6) was third.
Nathan Faherty ran to 11th place in 18:38.1, while Adam Litterio (19:20.4) was 23rd. Zane Hasty (34th, 20:01.3) and Eric Faherty (37th, 20:05.7) rounded out the VVS scoring column, with Kyle Ossant (21:27.8) and Martin Williamson (21:54.4) further back.
Oneida had its best individual finish in either Tri-Valley race from Conor McCarthy, who worked his way to seventh place in a time of 18:05.5.
Pat Markle claimed 31st place (19:51.2), with Kyle Meyers (21:24.7) in 55th. Andrew Thurber (21:57.7) and Tom Moshier (22:10.2) also competed at this meet in front of Sevack Danadian (23:01.2) and Drew Lusher (23:03.7).
