Gaining a key point in the tight OHSL Liberty division race, the Marcellus boys cross country team held off Solvay 25-30 last Wednesday afternoon to finish off a sweep of the Bearcats.
The Mustangs went 1-2 among individuals, with Ryan Manahan, who finished in 18:34.5, deferring to Justin Garn (18:34 flat) at the top spot. Just as importantly, Marcellus’ fifth runner, Alex Stopen, finished in 20:57, eight seconds ahead of Solvay’s Isaiah Lee, to help his side hang on.
In between, the Bearcats’ Matt Cregan finished third, in 18:39, while Cody McCarthy was fourth in 19:23 and Eric Goodrich (19:44) finished fifth. Two Mustangs, Pat McGuane (10:17) and Alex Zamajski (20:18), finished ahead of Solvay’s Nate Carr (20:53) in eighth place.
Marcellus, in the girls meet, landed five of the top six spots, led again by Rachel Garn, whose time of 22:30 was more than two minutes ahead of runner-up Molly McGuane, who was second in 24:58, inches ahead of Eliza Bell (24:58.5) in third place. Emily Townsend was fourth (25:17) and Dominique Weeks (26:38) was sixth.
Westhill/Bishop Ludden swept Chittenango, prevailing 15-48 in the boys meet and 19-43 in the girls meet.
Casey Bunce won the boys race in 14:18. Peter Lynch, in 14:29, edged out Liam Rodgers (14:30) for the runner-up spot, and Vinny Carr, in fourth place (14:47), did the same over Dan DeMauro (14:48) for fourth place. Alec Walsh gained eighth place in 14:59, while Josh Owens (15:12) and Garnet Remillard (15:15) also reached the top 10.
It was Annibel Coolican winning the girls race, her time of 16:13 beating the Bears’ Anna Galbraith (16:29) by 16 seconds, but Westhill/Ludden swept the rest of the top five.
Emily Washburn, in 17:02, slid into third place, while Caroline Coates was fourth in 17:18. Genny Corcoran (17:27) was fifth, inches ahead of Erin Morrell (17:28), with Mary Kate Washburn (18:02) and Erin Christensen (18:22) also managing top-10 finishes.
Jordan-Elbridge split its meet with Skaneateles on that same day, prevailing 21-34 on the boys side but falling to the state Class C no. 2-ranked Lakers 20-39 on the girls end.
To move ahead in the boys race, the Eagles landed four of the top five individual spots, led by Jack Gugel, who in a time of 18:58 pulled away from Lakers runner-up Cooper Wyatt (19:19) to prevail.
Jacob Patterson began the decisive wave, landing in third place in 19:44, one second better than teammate Nick Parkolap (19:45) in fourth, while Austin Milton made his way to fifth place in 19:58. Christian Marrero was ninth, in 20:35, to round out the scoring as Bill DiRenzo (20:40) was 10th.
The Skaneaetles girls are so strong in 2012 that five of its top runners sat out against J-E, which allowed the Eagles’ Abby Gugel to race to the front.
Gugel prevailed in a time of 21:53, but Lakers competitors grabbed the next five spots before Brianna Byrnes earned seventh place in 24:22. Emily Kuehnle (26:12) made her way to eighth place.
All of this led to Saturday’s McQuaid Invitational, in Rochester, where dozens of teams from across the Northeast gathered for a series of boys and girls races.
Manahan again proved tough to catch. The Marcellus senior tore through the Genesee Valley Park course in 14 minutes, 37 seconds in the Varsity AA seeded race, earning the top speed rating for the entire day. Jack Gugel finished third in the Varsity A-2 race in 15:58 and J-E finished fourth as a team.
On the girls side, Rachel Garn got involved in a thriller in the Varsity AA race with Sweet Home’s Aileen Doyle. Both hit the line in the same time of 17:35, but Doyle was a bit faster, leaving Garn in the runner-up spot.
Westhill/Ludden went to the E.J. Herrmann Invitational at Utica Proctor, finishing 11th in the boys Varsity Race 2 and 13th on the girls side in that same division.
