For Laura Leff and the West Genesee cross country teams, another big spotlight moment loomed when they went to Rochester’s Genesee Valley Park for Saturday’s massive McQuaid Invitational.
Sure enough, Leff worked her way to the top of the standings in the Varsity AAA race, one of the elite divisions. In a time of 17 minutes, 14 seconds, Leff beat Penfield’s Katie Lembo by 36 seconds, a substantial margin. Further back in the girls field,
Lindsay Weaver worked her way to 36th place, in 19:31, while Abby Kastick was 56th in 20:03. Amy Hannahan (21:04), Lauren Brieant (21:18) and Kelly Powell (21:20) rounded out the field.
In the boys AAA race at McQuaid, WG’s Martin Leff posted a time of 16:31 and took 26th place. Nate Conroy was 41st, in 16:51, while Ethan Osborne (17:00) and Jack Erhard (17:01) finished next to each other in 50th and 51st, respectively. Mark Reilly was 58th (17:09) and Tim Sprague (17:13) was 63rd.
Prior to that, WG took on Auburn Wednesday afternoon, and won handily on both sides as the girls Wildcats prevailed 16-47 and the boys beat the Maroons 18-43.
Laura Leff led a sweep of the top four girls spots, winning in 21:15.3. Weaver grabbed second place in 21:29.43, with Powell third (21:42.8), less than a second ahead of Kastick (21:43.6) in third place.
In all, WG had nine of the top 10 spots. Elise Dunshee took sixth place in 22 minutes flat, with Brieant seventh in 22:20 flat. Mary McGlynn was eighth (22:22.9), just in front of Hannahan (22:35.5) and Alycia Andolina (22:46.2).
Moving to the boys race, Martin Leff, with his time of 17:30.3, led a 1-2-3 sweep of Wildcats as Erhard was second in 17:36.2 and Conroy (17:40.2) slid into third place.
Reilly, in 18:03.4, claimed fifth place. Mike Lannon was seventh in 18:08.2, leading a pack that included Osborne (18:17.1), Luke Potash (18:18.2) and Sprague (18:33.1).
