In order to secure second place in the OHSL Liberty division behind Westhill/Bishop Ludden, the Cazenovia girls cross country team had to sweep Marcellus and Jordan-Elbridge Wednesday at the Mustangs’ home course.
And that’s exactly what the Lakers did, utilizing its depth to get past the Mustangs 24-33 while, at the same time, ripping past the Eagles 15-49.
Individually, Cazenovia’s top three runners – Jeanette Cudney, Michelle Karker and Megan Stanford – stuck close to each other as Marcellus star Rachel Garn won the individual race in 21 minutes, 29 seconds.
Cudney would claim second place, in 21:47, one second ahead of Karker (21:48), and Stanford found her way to fourth place in 21:57.
Just as important was the second group of Lakers that clinched victory. Margaret Wolsey worked her way to seventh place in 22:49. Malone Gabor got eighth place (22:56), with Rae Tobey ninth in 23 minutes flat, all of them ahead of the Mustangs’ fourth runner, Eliza Bell (23:04).
Cazenovia’s boys team lost to J-E 18-45 and Marcellus 15-49, only seeing Sean Satchwell crack the top 10 as he took ninth place in 19:54. Mustangs star Ryan Manahan won in 18:21.
As this took place, both of Chittenango’s sides went to East Syracuse-Minoa’s Pine Grove course for the OHSL Freedom division championships.
The girls Bears were third, with 71 points, trailing only host ESM (41 points) and Jamesville-DeWitt (55 points), while the boys team was fifth in the seven-team field with 124 points as, again, ESM (25 points) prevailed on its home course.
Shannon Bunce and Kendall McGee ran together for the Chittenango girls and took third and fourth, respectively, each finishing in 21:22. Anna Galbraith was 12th, in 22:24, while Kaitlyn Alongi was 26th (24:22) and Alyssa Crane was 39th in 26:44.
Among the Bears’ boys runners, Jason Given had the best showing, as he moved to 19th place in 19:15, just ahead of Kenny Galbraith, who was 23rd in 19:34. Isaac Czarnecki, in a time of 19:51, got 26th place as Lucas Rogers was 27th in 19:54. Matt McGee (20:47) and Ben Seale (20:59) also finished within the top 50.
Chittenango went on to compete in Saturday’s Sandy Creek Invitational, where it was third in the 12-team girls division with 138 points. McGee, in a time of 20:54.55, was ninth, just ahead of Bunce (21:09.39) in 10th place. Anna Galbraith was 14th in 21:43.74, while Crane was 49th in 24:93.97.
Among the boys sides at Sandy Creek, Chittenango was fifth, with 125 points, as Given had the top individual effort, finishing 20th in 18:23.61. Kenny Galbraith was 24th in 18:32.01, one spot ahead of Czarnecki (18:32.57) in 25th. Rogers was 28th, in 18:37.12, with Jacob Teeter (18:51.92) in 33rd place.
