Each of Liverpool’s cross country teams backed up their regular-season work by going to Baldwinsville on Wednesday and prevailing in both versions of the CNY Counties League National division championship meet.
The Liverpool girls team had to worry most about rival Cicero-North Syracuse, but once again the Warriors prevailed, 28 points to the Northstars’ 36. Baldwinsville, the home team, was third with 62 points.
On an individual basis, the show belonged to CNS freshman Nicole Watterud, who was the only runner to break the 18-minute mark on the B’ville course, finishing in 17 minutes, 55.99 seconds as teammate Marissa Colburn (18:59.21) finished third.
In between them, Lesley Bowers led the Liverpool charge, with her second-place time of 18:35.30, but the Warriors really won the meet with its depth behind Bowers.
Rachel Putman finished fifth, in 19:17.93, with Chelsea Attaway in fifth place (19:19.40) and Melissa Riehl sixth in 19:31.84. Trina Bills clinched the title for the Warriors as she finished 11th in 19:48.68, with Connie Torres 23rd in 20:43.71.
Behind Watterud and Colburn, CNS saw Mackenzie Cummings earn eighth place, in 19:40.49, while Katie Laris finished 10th (19:44.52) and Christina Sakowski (20:11.11) claimed 14th place. Jamie Leone was 19th in 20:26.55.
For the Liverpool boys team, a win meant surviving another test from the hosts. Just as in their head-to-head met two weeks earlier, Liverpool beat B’ville on its own course, claiming 31 points to the Bees’ 38 as CNS (57 points) took third place.
Individually, it came down to Liverpool’s Colin Savage and B’ville’s Shaun Thompson. In the end, Savage, with his time of 15 minutes, 36.68 seconds, fended off Thompson (15:39.81) by 3.13 seconds at the finish line.
Liverpool would occupy half of the top 10 to put B’ville away. Alex Wilke was fifth, in 15:54.96, just ahead of Anthony Brais (15:56.21) in sixth place. Chris Clemons was ninth, in 16:08.62, with Nick Hull 10th in 16:10.55. Brandon Rudd (15th, 16:19.43) and Mychal Ostuni (18th, 16:33.30) also finished in the top 20.
CNS star Chris Buchanan followed Savage and Thompson to the line, earning third place in 15:43.30, but didn’t have much company from his fellow Northstars. Only Dan Fritz, in eighth place (16:07.99), found the top 10.
Jared Walther, in 13th place (16:16.68) led the next CNS pack, as Eric Hart finished 16th (16:23.05) and Alex Bottorff (16:27.62) eased into 17th place. Ken Ryan was 19th in 16:39.27.
