Right away, the Cazenovia girls cross country team established itself as an OHSL Liberty division favorite as it went to Marcellus Wednesday and beat the Mustangs by a score of 24-33.
At the same time, the boys Lakers lost to Marcellus 20-43, despite the individual title earned by Pat Dermody as he posted a time of 18 minutes, 34 seconds, beating the Mustangs’ Jesse Garn by five seconds.
The reverse took place in girls action, where Rae Tobey, in a time of 21:47, was a close second to the Mustangs’ Rachel Garn (21:39), but had more help behind her.
Hollie Marcelle finished third, in 22:16, while Jeannette Cudney worked her way to fifth place in 22:29 and Malone Gabor slid into sixth place in 22:50. Michelle Karker, with her eighth-place time of 23:45, clinched the Lakers’ title as Margaret Woolsey finished ninth in 24:05.
Marcellus countered by taking each of the eight finishing spots behind Dermody in the boys race, all finishing ahead of Darren Smith, who was 10th in a clocking of 20:45.
In the OHSL Freedom division opener, Chittenango nearly pulled off a total sweep of last Wednesday’s three-way meet against Homer and Phoenix.
On the boys side, the Bears did win twice, knocking off the host Trojans 24-32 and beating the Firebirds by a larger 18-43 margin.
Josiah Durfee pulled away from the rest of the field and won in 16 minutes, 59 seconds, with brother John Durfee getting second place in 17:39.
A bit further back, Jason Ceresoli took fifth place (18:23) as Kenny Galbraith (19:06) and Brad Murray (19:14) both earned top-10 individual finishes, giving Chittenango the depth it needed for the sweep.
Over in the girls race, Chittenango also beat Phoenix by a 25-36 margin, but lost to Homer 23-34 as the Trojans’ Bori Tozser (19:33) and Abbey Gray (20:44) went 1-2 among individuals.
Jordan Donnelly had the Bears’ best individual time, taking sixth in 22:08. Hannah Murphy found her way to eighth place in 22:34 as Alissa Levens-Freeman finished ninth (24:23) and Hillary Courtwright got 10th place in 24:31.
