Liverpool and Cicero-North Syracuse would both earn cross country victories during a busy Saturday, though in different venues.
At the 61st annual Baldwinsville Invitational at Durgee Junior High School, the girls Warriors won the Large Schools division, scoring 52 points to edge the host Bees, who were second with 58 points.
The first key point was that Liverpool’s top two runners, Abby McNamara and Morgan Mahoney, finished ahead of B’ville’s Annie Peterson and Rachael Miller, with McNamara second in 19 minutes, 11.8 seconds and Miller right behind her in third place in 19:12.4. Peterson was fourth and Miller was fifth.
Two freshmen helped the Warriors build upon that margin, was Juliana Basla took ninth place in 19:46.2 and Emily Butler (19:50.6) worked her way to 10th place. Mackenzie White clinched the victory when she finished 28th in 20:35.9, just ahead of Jessica Turner in 30th place (20:40.4). Lindsey Thiel, in 42nd place (21:12.5), rounded out the scoring column.
Meanwhile, the Liverpool boys team settled for eighth place in the 14-team Large Schools division. Nick LeClair led the Warriors, finishing 31st in 17:03.4, just ahead of Sean Brais (17:05.3) in 33rd place. Dylan McCarthy was 40th (17:16.0), ahead of Jacob Rowell (17:25.6) and Jeremy Goetz (17:29.8).
As this went on, C-NS was competing at the smaller New Hartford Invitational, where it dominated the girls Division I event with 32 points to Utica Proctor’s runner-up total of 60 points.
Of the top 12 runners, 10 were Northstars. Jacqlynn Halstead won the race in 20:04 flat, far ahead of Nicole Watterud, who took second place in 20:51.9.
Taylor Parry, with a fifth-place clocking of 21:46.7, led a big C-NS wave. Madison Kolakowski (21:58.1) and Emily Dolan (22:18.9) rounded out the scoring column, with Savannah Stevens (22:28.2), Jilliann Norris (22:34.0), Lexi Pirro (22:38.2), Sarah Shannon (22:45.1) and Lauren Carr (23:13.3) in the eighth through 12th spots.
In the closer boys Varsity I race at New Hartford, C-NS had 35 points, just ahead of the host Spartans, who were second with 47 points.
Colin Greenseich finished second, his time of 17:53.7 behind Utica Proctor’s Zakaria Adam, who won in 17:25.5. After New Hartford’s Nathan Donaldson and Gabe Ponce finished, C-NS’s depth overwhelmed the Spartans’ challenge.
Matt Crough finished sixth, in 18:42.6, while Chris Hannan was seventh in 18:43.9. Nick Erwin was ninth in 18:45.5 as Andrew Bearkland was 11th (18:52.6), Jared George took 13th place (19:02.6) and Paul DeGennaro (19:11.7) finished in 15th place.
Before all this, C-NS and Liverpool swept last Wednesday’s CNY Counties League meets. In the Northstars’ case, that meant winning over Syracuse West 15-50 on the girls side and 20-43 on the boys side at Oneida Shores.
The C-NS girls, ranked no. 10 in the latest state Class A poll, had Kolakowski work her way to the top spot, prevailing in 20:28.1, while Amanda Shulman was second in 20:31.4.
Close behind them, Halstead (20:32.3) and Watterud (20:32.7) were third and fourth, respectively. Norris was fifth (21:03.4), in the middle of a top-10 sweep where Dolan (21:22.7), Shannon (21:37.7) Pirro (21:42.8), Parry (21:52.9) and Stevens (21:53.8) all took part.
The only difference on the boys side was that Syracuse West’s Eli Welling beat the C-NS pack, claiming the individual race in 16:24.9 before Greenseich gained second place in 16:38.1.
Crough, in 17:18.8, pulled away from DeGennaro (17:29.9) for third place, while Hannan was fifth in 17:34.6. Erwin was sixth in 17:47.2, with George (18:05.0) and Bearkland (18:06.0) seventh and eighth, respectively. Evan Russell (18:07.6) and Seth Steele (18:11.5) also ran well.
Liverpool, meanwhile, was beating Central Square by that same 15-50 margin on the girls side, and 19-44 in the boys meet. Mahoney won the girls race in 20:44, six seconds ahead of McNamara. Basla (20:53) and Butler (20:55) were close behind in third and fourth, respectively.
Leading the next group, Rebecca Murray was fifth, in 21:49, just as Turner (21:59) edged Mackenzie White (22:00) for sixth place. Ashley Letteney (22:14), Morgan Chewning-Kulick (22:20) and Lindsey Thiel (22:22) rounded out the top-10 Liverpool sweep.
In the boys race, the Warriors’ Ben Petrella battled his way to victory, his time of 17:35 just eight seconds better than Central Square’s Ian Spera.
As LeClair took third place in 18:15 and McCarthy (18:24) finished fourth, three Liverpool runners – Dan Muldoon, Travis Chewning-Kulick and Drew Henry – each crossed the line in 18:31, just ahead of Rowell (18:33) as Brais was ninth in 18:45.
