Most of Central New York’s cross country runners were gathered together for last Saturday’s Vernon-Verona-Sherrill Invitational, including local sides from Jamesville-DeWitt, CBA and East Syracuse-Minoa.
They all confronted the 3.1-mile VVS course that will serve as host for the Nov. 3 Section III championships, and J-D did quite well, getting second place in both the girls and boys portions of the Varsity 1 race.
In the girls event, the Red Rams had 80 points, beating everyone in the 17-team field except Cicero-North Syracuse, who finished on top with 48 points.
Sophomore Rachel Fairbanks finished eighth among individuals in 20 minutes, 25.3 seconds. Emilee Carpenter was 13th, in 20:58.6, while Jess Picone rose to 18th place in 21:41.4. Samantha Clemons took 20th place (21:44.8) as Laura Wengert, in 21:58.2, earned 25th place.
Nick Harron and Jack Healy led the efforts for the J-D boys team as, with 105 points, it held off Fulton (116 points) for the Varsity 1 runner-up spot behind, again, C-NS (58 points) at the top.
Like Fairbanks, Harron finished eighth, posting a time of 17:55.1, while Healy worked his way to 11th place in 18:06.1. Will Hohreiter finished 20th in 18:29.3. Matt Murad was 32nd in 18:52 flat as Andrew Scibilia (18:55.4) and Nick Street (18:56.3) were 35th and 36th, respectively.
East Syracuse-Minoa’s girls team challenged for top honors in Varsity Race 4, getting 59 points to earn the runner-up spot behind Sweet Home, from the Buffalo suburbs, who won with 37 points.
Natalie Marra paced the Spartans, grabbing sixth place in 20:52.7, with Gabby Pallotta getting to eighth place (21:13.5) and Juliette Miller 10th in 21:35.7. Bridget Benz fashioned a 16th-place run in 22:09 flat as Brittany Kubecka was 19th in 22:26.5. Maria Miner (23:04.4), Cindy Brownson (23:05.2) and Morgan Young (23:15.1) were close behind.
On the boys side, where ESM finished eighth, Jesse Perrone had a strong race, taking fourth place in a time of 17:18.8, but Kyle Willey (19:16.1) came next, far back in 52nd place. Jacob Barker (19:28.3) and Nick Schug (19:41.1) were close behind Willey.
Megan Ann Pierce was a large reason why CBA’s girls team claimed fifth place with 131 points in the Varsity 3 division, where Liverpool (45 points) was on top.
Pierce, in a time of 19 minutes, 4.6 seconds, beat everyone in the field and everyone else in the other three varsity races – except Fabius-Pompey’s Erin McConnell, who set a torrid pace and won the overall girls individual title in 18:43.6.
Maire-Kate McGlynn also ran well for CBA, taking ninth place in 21:03.7. Gabrielle Schug worked her way to 30th place (22:25.9), with Lillie Hunt (23:52.6) and Julia Germain (24:36.0) further back.
In the boys Varsity 3 race, where the Brothers were also fifth in the team standings, David Carey posted a seventh-place time of 17:31.8, with Jack Lenkiewicz grabbing 17th place in 18:17.2. Jack Brower was 22nd in 18:31.3, followed by Will Adams (20:26.3) and Kyle Barker (20:38.6).
