At least the Liverpool girls cross country team would find success in last Wednesday’s meet at West Genesee, where the Warriors beat the Wildcats by a score of 28-29.
This narrow margin partially had to do with the way Rachel Putman ran. Putman trailed WG’s star freshman, Laura Leff, throughout the 3.1-mile course at Camillus Middle School and ran to second place in 20 minutes, 33 seconds, just behind Leff (20:07).
WG teammates Anna Leo (20:48) and Abby Kastick (20:52) took the third and fourth spots, respectively, but Liverpool’s bold answer would put them on top.
Kaitlyn McNamara gained fifth place in 20:54, two seconds behind Kastick, while Ashley Letteney claimed sixth place in 20:59. A bit further back, Morgan Mahoney worked her way to seventh (21:35), with Caroline Dieffenderfer clinching the meet by finishing eighth in 21:52 and Jessica Turner (21:55) safe in ninth place.
The boys race proved different, as Liverpool lost to the Wildcats 17-38. All WG did was sweep the top four finishing spots, led by Matt Byrnes’ winning time of 17:47 in front of Billy Gabriel, Martin Leff (17:48 each) and John DeLallo (17:49).
Not until Zach Crosby crossed the line in fifth place, inches ahead of Brandon Rudd (they both finished in 17:57), did Liverpool get someone on the board. Anthony Ostuni was eighth, in 18:10, while Drew Henry was ninth (18:11) and Casey Guilfoil got 10th in 18:12.
Both teams of Warriors went Saturday to the Manhattan Invitational at Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx, competing in the Varsity E division.
Putman recorded a top-10 finish in the girls race, getting to ninth place in a clocking of 16:17.55. Letteney earned 21st place in 16:52.74, with McNamara in 23rd place (16:57.90) and Mahoney running to 26th place in 17:06.16. Dieffenderfer also ran well, taking 29th place in 17:12.32.
On the boys side, Ostuni finished 18th in a time of 14:03.74, while Rudd got 27th place in 14:13.95. Crosby claimed 32nd place (14:19.02) as Henry worked his way to 35th place in 14:24.66. Kevin Abel finished 45th in 14:39.35 as Casey Guilfoil was 55th (14:54.13) and Anthony Romano was 70th in 15:09.51.
