Back home after its strong showing at the Manhattan Invitational, the Fayetteville-Manlius cross country teams put together a sweep of last Wednesday’s meet against fellow power West Genesee.
The boys race proved particularly good, but the Hornets still beat the Wildcats by a comfortable 21-34, while the F-M girls outclassed WG star freshman Laura Leff amid another 15-50 sweep.
Leff had won a fair share of races during the autumn and is one of the top-ranked ninth graders in the country. But she would only manage a sixth-place finish in this event as F-M unleashed its top performers once more.
Heather Martin, in a time of 17 minutes, 13 seconds, finished on top, just ahead of Jillian Fanning (17:14) and Christie Rutledge (17:15), while Katie Sischo slid into fourth place in 17:27 and Courtney Chapman got fifth place in 17:29. The second wave included Leah Monsour, who was seventh in 18:03 ahead of Maggie Malone (18:17), Katie Brislin (18:37) and Emily McGurrin (18:51).
Monsour had made her own waves in the Manhattan meet on Oct. 9, as she won the junior varsity B race in a time of 15:36.69. Monsour, Malone (16:02.90) and Alana Pearl (16:40.42) had the three fastest JV times of the entire meet – and that included more than 130 runners.
The F-M boys team used its sheer numbers to overcome the challenge of West Genesee. Mark McGurrin emerged as the individual champion, finishing in 15 minutes, 27 seconds, five seconds better than the Wildcats’ Billy Gabriel.
Clinching the victory, the Hornets filled out the top five as Andrew Roache, in 15:33, was third, one second behind Gabriel, while Nick Ryan took fourth place in 15:36 and Andrew Veilleux (15:43) was fifth. Owen Strong, in eighth place in 16:07, rounded out the scoring, with Ben Thomas and Jules Wellner both posting times of 16:18.
Christian Brothers Academy also ran on Wednesday, losing on the boys side to Marcellus and Jordan-Elbridge by equal 22-39 margins, even though Brendan Smith finished second in a time of 17:19. Jack Lenkiewicz was seventh in 18:11.
CBA’s girls team lost a narrow 28-29 decision to J-E, also falling to Marcellus 21-38. In defeat, Corey Hucko finished fourth in a clocking of 22:51, with Michaela Gildemeyer sixth in 23:34, the same time that Alexis Buck posted to finish seventh.
On Monday night, F-M’s national championship teams from 2007 to ’09 will be inducted into the Greater Syracuse Sports Hall of Fame during a dinner at Drumlins Country Club.
