In what might prove the key meet in the OHSL Liberty division regular-season championship race, the Marcellus boys cross country team won hard-fought decisions over Hannibal and Solvay Tuesday afternoon at Longbranch Park.
The Mustangs beat the Bearcats 21-34 and the Warriors 23-32, a more impressive feat when considering the fact that Solvay (at no. 8) and Hannibal (at no. 11) are both comfortably placed in the state Class C rankings.
Among individuals, Ryan Manahan again prevailed, covering the Longbranch course in 16 minutes, 6.7 seconds, well clear of the runner-up, Solvay’s Cody McCarthy, who edged the Mustangs’ Joe Fallon, 16:23.7 to 16:24.5, for second place.
Hannibal teammates Ryan Perry (16:28.3) and Ben Griffin (16:37.6) took the next two spots, but the Mustangs went ahead to stay when John Bell landed in sixth place in 16:38.7 and Justin Garn took seventh in 16:39.6.
Solvay’s Matt Battaglia was 10th in 17:24.4, though it was not enough for the Bearcats to prevent a 25-30 loss to Hannibal.
Less drama was found in the girls race, where Marcellus dominated both Solvay (16-47) and Hannibal (15-48), the Bearcats also losing to the Warriors 20-38.
The Mustangs’ top four runners stayed together as a pack out in front. Rachel Garn won, in 20:36.5, with Maggie Dunn (20:36.8), Molly McGuane (20:37.1) and Mary Morocco (20:37.3) close behind, all of them topping Solvay’s Ashlee Riggins, who was fifth in 21:06.9.
Then Eliza Bell ran to sixth place in 21:13.4, starting another Mustang pack. Tori Stoppen was eighth, in 21:49.7, while Dominique Weeks was ninth (22:37.7) and Jenny Linn (22:44.1) was 10th.
It was Westhill/Bishop Ludden’s turn on Wednesday to sweep, and it did so, the girls beating Jordan-Elbridge 15-46 and Christian Brothers Academy 19-39 to keep pace with Cazenovia (who swept Skaneateles and Homer) atop the OHSL Liberty division. J-E lost to CBA 20-35.
Jessica Curry led a sweep of the top spots, winning in 15:35, just ahead of Betsy Black (15:37) and Emily Washburn (15:39), while Erin Christensen (17:20) and Erin Morrell (17:22) rounded out the scoring column. J-E’s Phebe Alley led her side with a time of 17:25, while Lauren Hubbs, in 17:46, also cracked the top 10.
By contrast, Westhill/Ludden’s boys side pulled out a 27-28 thriller over J-E, but beat CBA by a more comfortable 22-39 margin as the Eagles handled the Brothers 23-36 to salvage a split.
J-E’s tandem of Steve Slonosky (14:08) and Mitch Alpha (14:17) took second and third, respectively, behind CBA star Brendan Smith (14:17), but Westhill/Ludden claimed four of the next five spots, all ahead of the Eagles’ Alex Suslik (14:50) and Dylan Wittico (14:55).
Jon Moore, with a fourth-place time of 14:25, led the Westhill/Ludden push, one second ahead of teammate Will Downs and two seconds better than Peter Lynch. Casey Bunce was seventh in 14:37.
Marcellus went to Saturday’s Bill Coughlin Invitational in Rome, where the girls Mustangs crushed nine other teams and prevailed with 47 points. Remsen was second with 87 points.
Garn grabbed individual honors as she posted a time of 19:18.40, edging South Lewis star Victoria Campanian (19:21.84) for the top spot. Dunn was fourth, in 20:03.05, while McGuane was fifth in 20:27.74. Morocco took 14th place (21:12.62) and Eliza Bell was 23rd in 22:08.65.
In the boys Coughlin meet, Marcellus lost a close team battle with Holland Patent, 56 points to the Golden Knights’ 53, even though Manahan won again in 16:07.43, more than 22 seconds ahead of the field, and Fallon was third in 16:41.05.
John Bell was 10th in 17:36.14, with Justin Garn 18th (17:47.27), but HP’s five place-runners got ahead of Alex Zamjoski in 24th and David Lilly in 25th.
