When it came time for the East Syracuse-Minoa and Jamesville-DeWitt cross country teams to have their head-to-head meeting, both would leave with something.
It was the girls Spartans prevailing over the Red Rams in a narrow 26-30 decision Tuesday at Pine Grove Middle School, while the J-D boys won by a more comfortable 22-37 margin to create a spilt of the dual meet.
To prevail, the ESM girls needed two groups of runners to work together. The first followed J-D’s Rachel Fairbanks, who won in a time of 20 minutes, four seconds.
Juilette Miller led the Spartans, finishing second in 20:26, two seconds better than Natalie Marra (20:28) in third place, while Gabby Pallotta got fourth place in 20:30 to further ESM’s lead.
J-D recovered with Emilee Carpenter running to fifth place in 20:36, Samantha Clemons claiming sixth place in 20:59 and Laura Wengert earning seventh place in 21:18.
However, the Spartans had one more group to follow. Bridget Benz finished eighth, in 21:25, while Brittany Kubecka was ninth (21:34) to close out the scoring. Once Marry Miner finished 10th in 21:48, ESM had sealed it.
Nothing that close took place in the boys meet, since the Red Rams snagged five of the six spots after ESM’s Jesse Perrone claimed the race in a time of 17:33.
Jack Healy led J-D as he finished second in 17:45, while Billy Hohreiter earned third place in 17:53 and Matt Murad earned fourth place in 18:49.
ESM’s Nick Schug got to fifth place in 19:05, but another J-D run followed as Andrew Scibilia claimed sixth place (19:14) and Brady Wing was seventh in 19:20. After the Spartans’ Jake Barker was eighth (19:21), the Rams’ Nick Street gained ninth place in 19:23 and Isaac Tupper was 10th in 19:42.
