Cazenovia’s cross country teams got the ultimate home-course advantage for Wednesday’s Onondaga High School League Liberty division championship meet, staged at the Sean Goggin Memorial Sports Complex.
However, it didn’t quite translate into a victory for the Lakers, who had to settle for second place in the seven-team field behind the combined Westhill/Bishop Ludden entry.
Overall, Cazenovia had 63 points, while Westhill/Ludden got 45 points, propelled mostly by having three of the top five individual finishers, including Jessica Curry (18:40.2) and Betsy Black (19:05.2), who went 1-2.
Sophomore Jeanette Cudney led the Lakers’ efforts, her time of 19 minutes, 47.5 seconds good for seventh place, just ahead of senior Michelle Karker, who was eighth in 19:56 flat.
Further down, sophomore Megan Stanford worked her way to 16th place in 20:49.9. Sophomore Malone Gabor was 19th, in 21:01.0, while junior Margaret Wolsey was 21st (21:09.6) to round out the scoring column and senior Rae Tobey was 23rd in 21:25.5.
Senior Logan Koennecke (22:19.1) was 33rd, ahead of Tori Wright, who was 37th in 22:34.9. Evelyn Wells (23:20.4), Paige Biviano (24:33.3), Marie Sugio (25:32.4) and Holly Eberle (27:14.8) also ran.
By contrast, the Cazenovia boys cross country team was ninth in its OHSL Liberty meet, well of the pace that Marcellus (33 points) and Hannibal (52 points) set at the top as CBA’s Brendan Smith won the individual race in 16:04.7.
Freshman Sean Satchwell had a fine individual showing, taking 24th place in a clocking of 18:14.7. Drew Devendorf was 60th, in 19:57 flat, followed by Ian Abernathy (20:07.0), Jack Woltman (20:16.1), Sean Maliga (20:41.5), Joe Stehle (20:48.0) and Matt Mistur (20:55.3).
Connor Carroll (21:39.4), Alex Hunt (21:43.5) and Carter Biviano (21:43.8) ran together ahead of Alex Downey (21:57.3), Brian Johnson (22:05.9), Waleed Sedqui (22:11.9), Max Nowak (22:45.3), Kevin Ridings (22:50.1), David Peterson (23:42.7), Trevor Slocum (24:46.7), David Marshall (24:47.2), Tim Hunt (28:03.9), Rusty Paddock (28:29.4) and Caten Boone (28:31.5).
All of the top Cazenovia runners will head to Jamesville Beach Park on Nov. 5 for the Section III championships. The boys Class C race is at 1 p.m. and the girls race starts at 2 p.m.
