Another example of the depth of quality runners on the Fayetteville-Manlius girls cross country was displayed in last Saturday’s Tully Invitational.
Despite the absence of most of its top performers, the Hornets, with 31 points, still beat Cicero-North Syracuse (48 points) and 21 other squads present on a chilly, wet and muddy course.
Behind the top two of CNS’s Jackie Halstead and Nicole Watterud, Mary Barger led the Hornets as she placed third in 19 minutes, 27.7 seconds, while Emily McGurrin took fourth in 19:31.6.
Michelle Duffy ran to sixth place, in 19:52.3, and Colleen Englert (19:53.9) claimed seventh place. Jessica Howe rounded out the scoring as she took 11th place in 20:07.9, while Mackenzie Pierie was 15th in 20:17.5.
F-M’s boys, in similar circumstances, did not have the same kind of result, settling for third place with 124 points behind CNS (28 points) and the hosts from Tully, who were second with 67 points.
Konrad Niemiec was 20th, in 17:58.8, just ahead of teammates Charlie Beeler (18:00.2) and Adam Hunt (18:09.7), while Andrew Berge was 32nd (18:30.5) and David Berman (18:56.4) was 42nd.
As a tune-up, F-M swept Central Square last Tuesday in a pair of 15-50 races. Alana Pearl won the girls race in 20:16, with Emily McGurrin second in 20:28.
Barger (20:54) and Englert (21:05) were third and fourth, respectively, with Duffy edging Maggie Malone for fifth place, though both finished in 21:11. Pierie (21;13), Howe (22:09), Christine Lavoie (22:37) and Rutledge (22:52) rounded out the top 10.
The boys race against the Red Hawks saw F-M run as a group, with Matt Deyo edging Ben Thomas at the line, 18:08.06 to 18:08.9. Conor Farrell (18:09.2) held off Colin Fitzgibbons (18:09.4) and Nick Ryan (18:09.7) for the third slot. Jules Wellner was sixth in 18:10, one second ahead of Bryce Millar. Niemiec (18:44) and Hunt (18:49) also ran well.
After hosting Auburn on Wednesday, the Hornets will make their annual trip to Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx, competing in the Eastern State Championship races during Sunday’s Manhattan Invitational.
