Cicero-North Syracuse’s cross country teams were quite eager to get started, as was shown by their efforts in last Saturday’s East Syracuse-Minoa Invitational.
On the course at Pine Grove Middle School, the girls Northstars bested 12 other teams for first place, finishing with 60 points. Host ESM (94 points) edged out Skaneateles (95 points) for the runner-up spot.
Jacqlynn Halstead led C-NS, the junior working her way to third place in 19 minutes 50 seconds, trailing only Fabius-Pompey’s Erin McConnell (18:47.2) and Skaneateles’ Madeline Adams (19:28.6).
Nicole Watterud began her senior campaign with a sixth-place finish in 20:15.1. Taylor Parry was 14th, in 20:54.3, while Maria LaMontagne earned 18th place (21:23.0), inches ahead of Amanda Shankman (21:23.3) in 19th place.
Emily Dolan was 22nd in 21:36.6, with Marissa Colburn (23:01.5) claiming 37th place. Just behind them, Lauren Carr was 42nd (23:20.6) and Savannah Stevens (23:44.2) landed in 47th place.
C-NS also had a strong showing in the boys version of the ESM Invitational, but with 67 points, it could not get ahead of Section V visitor Brighton, who won with 37 points.
Senior Neil Gill led the Northstars, running his way to eight place in a clocking of 17:42.3, with junior Colin Greenseich earning 10th place in 17:44.1.
Close behind them, Kevin Cialfi was 17th in 18:18.5, two spots ahead of Matt Crough (18:24.2) in ninth place. Nick Erwin finished 24th in 18:36.2 as Brian Traub grabbed 35th place (19:11.9) and Evan Russel (19:22.1) was 37th.
