On Wednesday afternoon, the Cicero-North Syracuse and Liverpool cross country teams gather together for their annual head-to-head classic at Oneida Shores.
Before that took place, though, the Northstars had two events to deal with, starting with last Wednesday’s league meet against Syracuse East, won 23-38 on the boys side and 15-50 on the girls side.
The presence of Syracuse East runners Alphonse Mugisha and Adam Luban made the boys meet closer. Colin Greenseich still won the race in 16 minutes, 48.8 seconds, but Mugisha (17:11.3) and Luban (17:18.3) sneaked into the second and third spots, respectively.
Matt Crough, who finished fourth in 17:27.8, started the C-NS wave. Chris Hannan got fifth place in 17:38 flat as Paul DeGennaro (17:49.5) took sixth and Nick Erwin (17:53.2) was seventh. Jared George landed in eighth place in 18:15.8, ahead of Andrew Bearkland (18:20.0) and Evan Russell, who was 10th in 18:30.4.
The girls meet was more lopsided, C-NS sweeping the top eight positions, led by Jillian Norris, who won in 20:40.7, edging out Madison Kolakowski (20:41.3) and Amanda Shuman (20:41.8) at the top. Nicole Watterud was fourth in 20:42.3.
In the next group, Taylor Parry, in 20:51.3, landed in fifth place. Savannah Stevens got sixth in 21:43.9, followed by Lexi Pirro (21:46.6), while Amanda Lerch (22:49.4) and Alexis Polimino (22:57.9) also made the top 10.
Most of the top runners rested, though, because they were due to run at Proctor Park in Saturday’s 70th edition of the E.J. Herrmann Invitational at Proctor Park in Utica.
C-NS, in both instances, would finish second in the Varsity 2 races. The girls Northstars had 72 points, beating everyone in the 14-team field except Holy Names, who won with 28 points by sweeping the top four individual spots.
Jacqlynn Halstead, in a time of 19:45.6, took eighth place, while Watterud eased into 12th place in 20:06.8. Shuman was 15th in 20:32 flat as Kolakowski (21:05.0) and Parry (21:06.7) were 19th and 20th, respectively. Jillian Norris (21:41.4), Emily Dolan (21:59.3) and Savannah Stevens (22:10.4) followed.
For the C-NS boys, a total of 96 points meant a runner-up finish behind Notre Dame-Bishop Gibbons (28 points), who grabbed four of the top six spots in front of Greenseich, who led the Northstars with an 11th-place clocking of 17:37.6.
As for Crough, he took 16th place in 17:59.9, just ahead of Hannan (18:05.1) in 18th place. Erwin made his way to 24th place in 18:23 flat, just ahead of George (18:28.6) and Bearkland (18:31.7), with DeGennaro 35th in 18:42.2.
