In its first race of the 2010 season, the Cicero-North Syracuse cross country team nearly pulled off a sweep at Saturday’s Chittenango Invitational.
Gorgeous sunshine and temperatures pervaded at Jamesville Beach State Park, where the CNY Counties League and Onondaga High School League championships will be staged on Oct. 30, and the Northstars were ready.
All the CNS girls team did was win the Division II race with 68 points, as Hilton (87 points) edged West Genesee (91 points) for the runner-up spot.
Sophomore Nicole Watterud led the Northstars, finishing second in 18 minutes, 45.8 seconds, behind only WG’s Laura Leff, who won in 18:14.2. Ninth-grader Jacqlynn Halstead fought her way to fourth place in 19:45 flat.
Junior Katie Laris worked her way to 16th place (20:49.3), while fellow junior Mackenzie Cummings was 21st in 21:28.9. Senior Lori Holmes finished 25th in 21:55.3 to close out the scoring as sophomore Megan Murphy (22:04.6) was 28th.
Meanwhile, in the boys Division II race, CNS had 89 points, second behind West Genesee’s top score of 65 points. Liverpool also ran in this division and got fifth place with 120 points.
Northstars senior Chris Buchanan needed 15 minutes, 51.6 seconds to run to fourth place, the only CNS finisher in the top 10.
Ken Ryan just missed that mark, taking 11th place (16:32.4), while Eric Hart finished 13th in 16:38.3. Anthony Lupia worked his way to 20th place (16:49.9). Tom McAndrew was 46th (17:45.3), just ahead of Jared Walther (17:50.1) in 48th place.
For Liverpool, senior Brandon Rudd led his side with an 18th-place time of 16:48 flat. Zach Crosby took 22nd place, five seconds behind in 16:53.0, while Drew Henry got 23rd place (16:58.6). Anthony Ostuni claimed 30th place (17:18.6) and Kevin Abel, in 34th place (17:26.8), rounded out the scoring column.
Far to the north, the Liverpool girls cross country team finished a close second to Canton at th South Jefferson Invitational, finishing with 59 points as Canton (52 points) claimed the top spot.
Among individuals, Ashley Letteney fared best, getting to sixth place in 21:28.6, just ahead of Rachel Putman, who earned seventh place in 21:37.4.
Further back, Kaitlyn McNamara ran to 14th place in 22:40.8 as Morgan Mahoney rose up to 15th place in 22:47.3. Ali Whiting was 20th (24:12.9) and Jesse Attaway finished 23rd in 24:34.5.
On Wednesday, CNS gets its chance against Fayetteville-Manlius, whose girls team has won three consecutive national championships and is gunning for a fourth. The boys Hornets are the defending state Class AA champions.