Both on a team and individual basis, cross country runners from Cicero-North Syracuse and Liverpool had a reason to feel proud at the end of Saturday’s Section III Class A championship meet at Jamesville Beach Park.
In all, the Northstars and Warriors will send five individuals to this Saturday’s state championship meet at Vernon-Verona-Sherrill, three of them from the CNS girls squad.
On a team basis, those girls Northstars, with 69 points, held off West Genesee (81 points) for the runner-up spot behind five-time defending national champion Fayetteville-Manlius, who prevailed with 19 points.
After F-M claimed nine of the top 10 positions, CNS sophomore Jackie Halstead crossed the line in 11th place, covering the 3.1-mile Jamesville Beach course in 20 minutes flat.
Junior Nicole Watterud was 12th, in 20:17.4, while freshman Taylor Parry was 13th in 20:22.4. Halstead, Watterud and Parry all secured spots on the Section III All-Star squad for the state meet with West Genesee’s Laura Leff and Baldwinsville’s Rachael Miller.
Elsewhere for the Northstars, Marissa Colburn finished 20th, in 21:05 flat, while Madison Kolakowski claimed 23rd place in 21:29.3 and Katie Laris was 25th in 21:37.5. Emily Dolan was 36th in 22:08.8 and Savannah Stevens was 46th.
Liverpool’s girls had a solid effort, too, claiming fourth place with 103 points as ninth-grader Abby McNamara led the way, running to 17th place in a clocking of 20:56.8.
Just behind McNamara, sophomore Jessica Turner was 19th, in 21:18.7, while sophomore Jessica Turner was 21st in 21:18.7. Senior Caroline Dieffenderfer earned 27th place in 21:40.2 and sophomore Morgan Mahoney (21:41.5) was 29th, just ahead of Rebecca Murray (22:26.4), Lindsay Thiel (22:31.9) and Ali Whiting (22:34.0), who were 39th, 42nd and 43rd, respectively.
In the boys Class A meet, Liverpool had an inspired effort, rising to second place with 82 points, trailing only F-M (18 points), while CNS (minus its top runner for much of the season, Anthony Lupia), had to settle for fifth place with 149 points.
Both Northstars junior Neil Gill, who was ninth in 17:09.2, and Warriors senior Anthony Ostuni, who was 10th in 17:11.3, earned state meet berths as part of the top five outside F-M. They join B’ville’s Alec Peinkofer, WG’s Martin Leff and Syracuse East’s Adam Luban on that All-Star team.
For the Warriors, junior Drew Henry rose to 15th place in 17:30.5, just ahead of fellow junior Travis Chewning-Kulick, who was 16th in 17:30.8. Kevin Abel also ran well, claiming 19th place in 17:36.5, as Adam Zinger (17:45.4) and Dan Muldoon (17:47.4) were 22nd and 23rd, respectively. Connor Buck was 26th in 17:49.4.
On CNS’s side, sophomore Colin Greenseich had the second-best effort, finishing 27th in 17:50.2, while Kevin Cialfi was 30th in 17:58.5. Matt Crough, in 43rd (18:16.6), and Bryan Junod, in 44th (18:17.3), rounded out the scoring column as Ken Ryan (18:27.7), Paul DeGennaro (18:38.0) and Jared George (18:45.6) followed.
