Staying atop the OHSL Freedom division, the East Syracuse-Minoa cross country teams roared to easy wins over Phoenix and Cortland in Wednesday’s three-way meet.
The boys Spartans swept past the Firebirds 15-50 and the Purple Tigers 15-47. Mike Coogan, in a time of 18:14, led the way as Joe Coogan was second in 18:32, Jesse Perrone was third (18:37) and Louis Ferrone got fifth place in 18:37.
Brandon Miller, with his sixth-place clocking of 19:54, finished just ahead of Casey McGarrity and Nick Schug, both of whom finished in a time of 19:55.
With similar totals, the ESM girls beat Cortland 15-50 and Phoenix 18-44. Among individuals, Gabby Pallotta stood out, her time of 21:23 beating the Firebirds’ Haylie Virginia by 46 seconds.
From there, the Spartans swept the rest of the top 10. Morgan Young was third, in 22:12, with Cindy Brownson (23:33) edging Brittany Kubecka (23:34) for fourth and Bridget Benz (23:42) sixth. Paige Courbat got seventh in 24 minutes flat, ahead of Cherish Flynn (24:18), Megan Crandall (24:37) and Maria Miner (24:49).
Jamesville-DeWitt had a closer call on the boys side against Fulton, but also got its own sweep, beating the Red Raiders 25-30 in that race while dominating the girls race 15-48.
Billy Hohreiter, in 17:41, was second to Fulton’s Kyle Loftus (17:26), while Jack Healy was third in 17:50. Nick Harron got fifth place in 18:06, but it took Matt Murad finishing seventh (18:30) and Isaac Tupper getting eighth place in 18:50 to clinch the win.
On the other hand, the girls Red Rams had a top-five sweep, with Rachel Fairbanks winning the race by a comfortable margin with a time of 20:13.
Emilee Carpenter was second, in 20:55, with Samantha Clemons third (22:13), Katie Pinkes fourth (22:32) and Laura Wengert fifth in 22:37. Amber Blom, in seventh place (23:24), began a second J-D wave that included Samantha Jaffe (23:27), Shelby Weinstein (23:57) and Katherine Coughlin (24:19).
A day earlier, CBA had to face Skaneateles and Marcellus just two days removed from appearing at the Manhattan Invitational. As such, Brendan Smith, who won his race at Van Cortlandt Park, sat out the meet.
CBA’s girls team lost 20-49 to both the Mustangs and host Lakers, as Megan Pierce finished in a time of 19:13, third behind Marcellus’ Rachel Garn (18:39) and Skaneateles’ Madeline Adams (18:55). Alexis Buck worked her way to 10th place in 21:01.
Without Smith, CBA’s boys fell to Skaneateles 24-35 and lost to Marcellus 16-47, only seeing one runner, David Carey, contend as he took fifth place in 17:44.
All of these teams were present Saturday at Jamesville Beach Park, site of the Section III meet on Nov. 5, for Saturday’s Chittenango Invitational.
Smith won again, in boys Varsity Race 1, his time of 16:47.9 exactly 15 seconds better than Baldwinsville’s Alec Peinkofer. As a team, CBA was 10th, but J-D sneaked into fourth place as Harron finished 12th, in 17:58.4, and Hohreiter was 15th in 18:05.8. Healy was 39th in 18:46.4.
Moving to Varsity Race 3, Mike Coogan gave ESM a fourth-place finish in 17:26.5, while Joe Coogan was 15th in 18:05.2. Ferrone was 22nd with a time of 18:20.9 as Perrone got 33rd place (18:41.3) and Miller was 43rd.
In the girls Varsity Race 1, J-D had a fourth-place showing, pushed there by Fairbanks, who was fourth among individuals in a clocking of 20:35 flat. Carpenter gained 13th place in 21:31.0, while Wengert (22:57.5) and Pinkes (22:58.2) were 28th and 29th, respectively. Blom was 43rd in 23:34.3.
ESM, in Varsity Race 3, saw Pallotta work her way to sixth place in a time of 20:54 flat. Young finished 26th, in 22:00.9, while Kubecka (23:00.8), Brownson (23:14.4) and Benz (23:19.2) ran close together ahead of Courbat (22:33.8) and Flynn (22:34.7).
