Most of the area’s cross country teams moved into league competition Wednesday afternoon, and all of them managed to find wins.
Jamesville-DeWitt, in fact, beat two opponents, the boys Red Rams topping Mexico 20-39 and Cortland 15-40 to move to 2-0 in the OHSL Freedom division.
Will Hohreiter, second in a time of 18:47 to Mexico’s James Gowans (18:24), led a five-man J-D charge. Nick Harron was third, in 19:07, with Matt Muccid in fourth (19:24), Isaac Tupper fifth (19:25) and Jack Healy sixth in 19:40.
The J-D girls also earned a sweep, beating Mexico 18-43 and Cortland 18-45 as Rachel Fairbanks took individual honors in 24:28, well clear of teammate Katie Pinkes (24:53) in the runner-up spot.
Emilee Carpenter, in fourth place in 25:26, also cracked the top five. Katherine Coughlin was sixth in 25:58, while Samantha Jaffe (26:03), Holly Deng (26:12) and Amber Blom (26:26) also finished in the top 10.
Both of East Syracuse-Minoa’s teams dominated their head-to-head match with Fulton, beating the Red Raiders 15-49 on the girls side and 15-46 on the boys side.
Gabby Pallotta worked her way to the girls victory in 21:15., more than a minute ahead of Spartan teammate Morgan Young (22:24) in second place.
Young edged Brittany Kubecka, who was third in 22:25, as part of a top-six ESM sweep. Cindy Brownson (22:31), Bridget Benz (22:32) and Megan Crandall (22:33) were fourth, fifth and sixth, respectively. Paige Courbat took eighth (22:33) just ahead of Cherish Flynn (23:34) and Maria Miner (23:37).
Over in the boys race, Joe and Mike Coogan ran together at the top, Joe prevailing though both hit the line in 18:31. Louis Ferrone (18:32) and Jesse Perrone (18:33) were close behind as Nick Schug (18:48) completed a top-five sweep. Brandon Miller was seventh in 18:51 and Casey McGarrity (19:14) also finished in the top 10.
Fayetteville-Manlius had twin 15-50 sweeps of Rome Free Academy. Konrad Niemiec won the boys race in 18:18, three seconds ahead of Mike Malone, with Charlie Beeler third in 18:23 as he edged David Benman (18:24) for that spot. Adam Hunt was fifth in 18:29, with Nick Ryan, Ben Thomas and Luke Veilleux finishing in 18:32. Bryce Milar and Connor Farrell both ran to times of 18:32.
The national no. 1-ranked girls Hornets saw Emily McGurrin blaze to a win in 19:23, well clear of runner-up Maggie Malone, second in 19:48. Alana Pearl was third (20:08), one second ahead of Michele Duffy, while Mackenzie Pierie was fifth in 20:15. Jessica Howe (20:24), Haley Jackson (20:29) and Colleen Englert (21:05) rounded out a top-eight sweep.
J-D and ESM both made their way to Saturday’s Baldwinsville Invitational, where the Spartans and Red Rams were seventh and ninth, respectively, in the girls Large School division. For J-D, Fairbanks roared to fourth place in a time of 19:05 and Carpenter was 15th in 19:50, while ESM’s Pallotta earned ninth place in 19:23.
The Spartans featured Young in 41st place (20:52), just ahead of Brownson (21:14), Crandall (21:28), Benz (21:32) and Kubecka (21:49), while the Rams’ Laura Wengert took 50th place in 21:25, ahead of Samantha Clemons (22:27), Jaffe, Coughlin and Allison Hohreiter.
In the boys Large School race, where ESM was ninth and J-D 11th in a 14-team field, Mike Coogan tore to a time of 15:47.37, third behind B’ville’s Alec Peinkofer (15:27.81) and Burnt Hills’ Buddy Herkenham. Joe Coogan was 29th (16:44.27), three spots ahead of Perrone (16:46.84).
On J-D’s side, Harron had the best performance, claiming 58th place in 17:24.84. He was just ahead of Murad (17:26.30) and Healy (17:26.78), who were 61st and 62nd, respectively.
