They held eight varsity cross country races as part of Saturday’s Vernon-Verona-Sherrill Invitational, and teams from Cicero-North Syracuse and Liverpool won half of them.
The Northstars claimed both portions of the Varsity 1 division, while the Warriors did the same in the Varsity 2 division, all on the 3.1-mile VVS course that will host the Section III championships on Nov. 3.
In the girls Varsity 1 race, C-NS finished with 48 points, enough to beat 16 other teams, the closest of which was Jamesville-DeWitt, who gained second place with 80 points. The Northstars also had the top overall team score, just ahead of Baldwinsville and Liverpool.
Jacqlynn Halstead led the Northstars, claiming third place among individuals in 19 minutes, 38.1 seconds, not that far behind the winner, Jordan-Elbridge’s Abby Gugel (19:25.8).
Nicole Watterud ran to sixth place in 20:16.8, while Amanda Shuman stepped up for 11th place in 20:43.3. Taylor Parry was 14th (21:11.6) and Madison Kolakowski took 21st place in 21:49 flat.
Savannah Stevens was 23rd (21:57.6), leading the next C-NS group as Jillian Norris finished 28th in 22:13.3. Sarah Shannon took 33rd place in 22:21.9, just ahead of Lexi Pirro (22:25.7) in 35th.
As for the Liverpool girls team in the Varsity 3 race, only the combined Westhill/Bishop Ludden entry got close to the Warriors, who prevailed with 45 points to Westhill/Ludden’s 68.
Morgan Mahoney started Liverpool’s wave with a fifth-place time of 20:34.7. Following her, Abby McNamara finished seventh in 20:48.2, with Julianna Basla eighth in 20:55.3.
More Warriors runners followed, including Emily Butler, who was 11th in 21:21.6. Lindsay Thiel was 15th (21:42.1), while Mackenzie White (21:50.4) and Morgan Chewning-Kulick (21:53.8) were 17th and 18th, respectively. Jillian Stagnitta was 20th (22:03.4) and Rebecca Murray slid into 21st place (22:03.8) ahead of Jessica Turner, who was 27th in 22:14.2.
As for the boys races, no one came close to Liverpool’s boys team in the Varsity 3 division, where with 28 points the Warriors easily handled runner-up Westhill/Ludden (82 points) and the rest of the field. When all the races were counted, only Fairport did better.
Dan Muldoon vied for individual honors, too, only to take second place in a time of 16:54.8, just behind Utica Proctor’s Zakaria Adam, who prevailed in 16:53.4.
Backing up Muldoon, Drew Henry made his way to fourth place in 17:08 flat, with Ben Petrella stepping up to fifth place in 17:12.5. Alex Christensen, in eighth (17:38.4), and Travis Chewning-Kulick, in ninth (17:44.9), helped insure that Liverpool occupied half of the top 10 spots.
It didn’t stop there, either, as Dylan McCarthy rose to 13th place in 18:02.2, Sean Brais was 15th (18:12.8) and Nick LeClair earned 20th place in 18:26.4. Jeremy Goetz (18:34.0) and Liam Henry (18:35.6) were 23rd and 24th, respectively, with Jacob Rowell running to 30th place in 18:43.4.
C-NS, in Varsity Race 1, pulled away from the field with 58 points, with J-D again the runner-up, though further back with 105 points.
It was Neil Gill, who took fourth place in 17:30.5, and Colin Greenseich, who was sixth in 17:39.9, that set the pace for the Northstars, with Matt Crough rising up to claim ninth place in 17:58.2.
Paul Degennaro, in 18:21.1, made it to 18th place. Kevin Cialfi rounded out the scoring column in 21st place with a time of 18:30.5, while Nick Erwin was 23rd (18:31.9) and Chris Hannan was 24th in 18:33.2. Seth Steele was 33rd (18:52.3), ahead of Jared George (19:05.2) and Andrew Bearkland (19:05.5).
