Just in time for the Onondaga High School League Liberty division championships on Wednesday afternoon, traditional late-October weather – rain, gloomy skies, wind, raw temperatures – settled into the Sean Goggin Memorial Sports Complex in Cazenovia.
Not that this bothered the favorites one bit, as Westhill/Bishop Ludden, on the girls side, and Marcellus, on the boys side, backed up their regular-season titles with wins in this meet, too.
In the girls meet, Westhill/Ludden, paced again by seniors Jessica Curry and Betsy Black, earned 45 points as host Cazenovia took second with 75 points. Marcellus was in fourth, with 79 points, with Jordan-Elbridge seventh as it got 169 points.
Curry covered the three-mile course in 18 minutes, 40.2 seconds, nearly half a minute ahead of Black, who was second in 19:05.2. Marcellus sophomore Rachel Garn was third in 19:06.4.
Emily Washburn gave Westhill/Ludden more of a cushion as she finished fifth in 19:42.1. Erin Morrell was 12th, in 20:26.5, with Erin Christensen crossing the line in 29th place (22:04.5), just ahead of Caroline Coates (22:18.0) in 32nd place.
For Marcellus, Mary Morocco got into 13th place in 20:33.1, while Molly McGuane was 17th in 20:54.8. Eliza Bell worked her way to 24th place (21:30.6) as Dominique Weeks was 30th in 22:09.1. Tori Stopen was 39th in 23:06.3.
J-E saw Phebe Alley lead the charge, finishing 25th in 21:39 flat, while Alexis Malvaso (22:21.5) was 34th, ahead of Rachel Scott (23:18.7) and Kerry Mack (23:29.5) within the top 50. Also, Solvay’s Ashlee Riggins finished 38th in 22:44.1.
Moving to the boys OHSL Liberty race, Marcellus, no. 3 in the state Class B rankings, held off Hannibal, 33 points to the Warriors’ 52. J-E, with 92 points, was third, while Solvay (105 points) edged Westhill/Ludden (106 points) for fourth place.
Individually, the Mustangs’ Ryan Manahan could not keep up with CBA’s Brendan Smith, the junior settling for second place in 16:28.4 as Smith blazed to victory in 16:04.7.
Close behind Manahan, Justin Garn gained fifth place in 16:52 flat and Joe Fallon was sixth in 17:01.9. John Bell added further cushion when he took ninth in 17:28.5 and David Lilly was 11th in 17:35.3, all of them finishing ahead of Hannibal’s third, fourth and fifth runners. Alex Zamojski (18:29.4) was 27th.
The Eagles saw Steve Slonosky slide into seventh place in 17:06 flat and Mitch Alpha finish 10th in 17:33.6. To gain that third team spot, Jack Gugel had to rise to 22nd place (18:10.9), with Alex Suslik 25th in 18:15.9 and Dylan Whittico (18:32.4) in 28th place.
Solvay junior Cody McCarthy impressed as he claimed third place in 16:39.6 behind Smith and Manahan. Meanwhile, Matt Cregan was 16th, in 17:43.7, followed by Matt Battaglia (18:10.4) in 21st place and Nate Carr (18:34.2) in 29th place. Eric Goodrich, in 36th (18:52.1), rounded out the Bearcats’ scoring column.
Nine Westhill/Ludden runners finished within the top 40, but none did better than Peter Lynch, who was 18th in 17:52.2. Kyle Fitch, in 19th (18:02.0), and Casey Bunce, in 20th (18:05.5), were close behind as Will Downs was 23rd in 18:13.7 and Alec Walsh gained 26th place in 18:19.8.
This was the last big race before the Nov. 5 Section III championships, which take place at Jamesville Beach Park and start at 11 a.m. with the Class A boys event.
