Unscheduled absences of two star performers would hurt most cross country teams. Of course, it’s long established that Fayetteville-Manlius is not like most teams.
The girls Hornets, even with some newer faces at the front of the field, dominated Saturday’s sun-kissed Section III Class A championship meet at Jamesville Beach Park, and the F-M boys also rolled to a one-sided sectional victory.
F-M is heading into the heart of its post-season slate without Heather Martin, who broke a bone in her foot and is out the rest of the way, and Christie Rutledge, who is sidelined by back problems and may not return, either.
That didn’t matter one bit at the sectional meet, as F-M again showed that its superior depth is unmatched by anyone in the state – or the country. Led by another championship-tested veteran, Jillian Fanning, the Hornets, with 19 points, easily outpaced Cicero-North Syracuse (69 points) and the rest of the Class A field.
Fanning covered the 3.1-mile Jamesville Beach course in 18 minutes, 1.2 seconds, nearly 18 seconds ahead of West Genesee’s Laura Leff, who was second in 18:19.1. No less than eight F-M runners followed Leff and filled out the rest of the top 10.
Katie Sischo led that group, claiming third place in 18:45.1, while Jenna Farrell gained fourth place in 18:47.1. Katie Brislin, in 18:56.2, rounded out the top five, with Hannah Smith sixth in 19:00.3.
Smith beat out Alana Pearl, who worked her way to seventh place in 19:02.9. Annika Avery was eighth, in 19:12.2., while Emily McGurrin got ninth (19:38.7) and Maggie Malone was 10th in 19:53.9.
Going first in the Class A boys meet, F-M, who like their female counterparts are atop the state rankings, crushed all possible foes with 18 points. Liverpool, with 82 points, lay far back in second place.
Nick Ryan again set the pace for the Hornets, as the senior tore to the fastest time of the entire sectional meet, winning in 15 minutes, 34.4 seconds. Ryan led a 1-2-3 sweep as Matt Deyo gained second place in 16:17.8 and Colin Fitzgibbons earned third place in 16:38.5.
It didn’t stop there, either. Bryce Millar moved to fifth place in 16:43.5, while Ben Thomas got seventh place, edging out teammate Connor Farrell, 16:50.7 to 16:50.8. Mike Malone was 11th in 17:19.1, while Konrad Nemiec (18:09.6) and Andrew Berge (18:18.7) also finished in the top 50.
F-M’s teams now go to Vernon-Verona-Sherrill for next Saturday’s state championship meet. The boys Class A race is at 9 a.m. and the girls Class A race starts at 11 a.m.
Many other local runners are going to VVS as part of the Section III individual all-star teams. That includes CBA’s Brendan Smith, who won the Class C boys race in a time of 16:19.2. Teammate David Carey was 18th in 17:56.9 as the Brothers were 10th in the 18-team Class C meet.
East Syracuse-Minoa’s boys were second in Class B with 78 points, trailing only Marcellus, who won with 32 points, as Jamesville-DeWitt was fourth with 139 points. Both the Spartans’ Mike Coogan, who was fourth (17:28.6), and the Red Rams’ Nick Harron, who was eighth (17:38.2), while ESM’s Joe Coogan was ninth in 17:40.6 and Jesse Perrone (17:51.5) was 12th.
Moving to the girls side in Class B, ESM finished with 100 points for third place and J-D took fifth with 121 points. Again, one runner from each team advanced to the state meet, as the Spartans’ Gabby Pallotta ran to sixth place in 20:35.4 and the Red Rams’ Rachel Fairbanks was eighth in 21:01.8. Also, ESM’s Morgan Young was 13th (21:25.9) and J-D’s Emilee Carpenter (21:28.6) was 15th.
And though CBA finished ninth out of 15 girls Class C teams, Megan Pierce still qualified for the state meet by virtue of her third-place finish in 20:01.6. Only South Lewis teammates Victoria Campanian (19:27.1) and Christina Platt (19:59.8) did better.
