Though the Cicero-North Syracuse and Liverpool cross country teams don’t face each other in CNY Counties League action until Oct. 5 at Longbranch Park, they would race each other anyway at Saturday’s Vernon-Verona-Sherrill Invitational.
On the same course where the New York State Public High School Athletic Association meet will take place in mid-November, the boys Northstars won a narrow decision over the Warriors, 51 points to 53, in Varsity Race 3 at VVS. Overall, they were 15th and 22nd, respectively, in the 123-team field.
CNS’s top two runners, Anthony Lupia and Neil Gill, hit the line first. Lupia took third place in a time of 16:57.5 and Gill was fourth in 17:16.4, while Liverpool’s Anthony Ostuni was sixth (17:41.5) and Drew Henry got seventh place in 17:43.2.
Following that, the Northstars had Bryan Junod 14th (17:54.1) and Ken Ryan 16th (18:03.4) in between a trio of Warriors. Kevin Abel gave Liverpool a 13th-place clocking of 17:53.7, while Travis Chewning-Kulick was 15th (18:03.1) and Adam Zinger was 17th in 18:04 flat.
Just behind them, CNS’s Matt Crough (18:14.8) and Paul DeGennaro (18:17.9) were 19th and 20th, respectively, while Colin Greenseich (18:21.7) and Kevin Cialfi (18:28.3) also reached the top 30. Liverpool had Connor Buck (18:28.5), Dan Muldoon (18:28.8) and Kevin Rudd (18:29.9) finish 29th through 31st.
Over in the girls Varsity 3 race, CNS, still without top runner Maria LaMontagne (who should return in a few weeks), gathered 70 points to Liverpool’s 99, but both were behind Canandaigua (39 points) and Sachem East (50 points) in the team event and 14th and 23rd overall among all the teams entered.
Individually, the Northstars’ Jackie Halstead was fifth in a time of 19:44.4, with teammate Nicole Watterud sixth in 19:52.7 and Taylor Parry 11th in 20:22.5. Katie Laris was 17th (21:13.0) and Marissa Colburn (22:04.4) finished 32nd.
As for the Warriors, Kaitlyn McNamara finished 15th in 21:06.3, while Jessica Turner took 18th place (21:20.2), one spot ahead of Caroline Diffenderfer (21:27.2) in 19th. Morgan Mahoney fit into 21st place in 21:28.8, with Abby McNamara claiming 27th place in 21:49.2.
Four days before the trip to VVS, the Northstars made it 2-0 within the CNY Counties League, sweeping Utica Proctor by equal 15-50 margins at Oneida Shores.
Halstead won the girls race,Taylor Parry, though both crossed the line in 21:52, with Watterud one second behind in third place. Mackenzie Cummings was fourth in 22:44, edging out Colburn, who was fifth. Emily Dolan grabbed sixth place in 23:09 as Alexis Polimino (23:22), Jamie Leone (23:39), Savannah Stevens (23:44) and Jessica Swearingen (23:47) rounded out the top 10.
They were more tightly bunched in the boys race. Ryan, DeGennaro, Gill and Lupia were together, as Ryan won in 17:52, the same time as DeGennaro, with Gill and Lupia a second behind. Matt Crough followed up in a fifth-place clocking of 17:56. Greenseich, in 18:04, led the next pack of Cialfi and Junod, both of whom finished in 18:05 as CNS swept the top eight spots in the race.
Liverpool had its own sweep of Syracuse West on Wednesday – 15-46 on the boys side, 15-50 on the girls side.
Dieffenderfer, in a time of 21:03, led a sweep of the top 10 as Kaitlyn McNamara took second in 21:09 and Turner was third, in 21:21.
Mahoney, in fourth place (21:37), led the next pack, where Rebecca Murray was fifth (22:09) and Abby McNamara (22:15) was sixth, edging Lindsey Phiel (22:16). Megan Walsh (22:39), Katherine Vann (23:35) and Nicole Barrett (23:58) were close behind.
In the boys race, Ostuni led the Warriors, his time of 17:03 one second better than Henry. Abel was third (17:29) and Anthony Romano fourth in 17:47. Chewning-Kulick was two seconds behind Romano, with Zinger (17:58) and Buck (18:10) also running well.
