Each of the Cicero-North Syracuse and Liverpool cross country teams would leave Oneida Shores with a small dose of satisfaction after Wednesday afternoon’s showdown at Oneida Shores.
The girls Northstars pulled out a tough 25-30 victory, but in the boys meet the Warriors won by a convincing 20-41 margin.
If anything keyed C-NS’s win in the girls meet, it was that the runners in the scoring positions stuck together, negating the fact that Liverpool claimed four of the top seven spots.
That was certainly true up front, where Jacqlynn Halstead gave the Northstars the victory in 18 minutes, 40.6 seconds, and her teammate, Nicole Watterud, worked her way to second place in 18:45 flat.
The Warriors got on the board when Morgan Mahoney finshed third in 18:48.3, not far behind Halstead and Watterud, while Abby McNamara led the next group, easing into fourth place in 19:13.5.
Before Emily Butler (19:31.1) and Juliana Basla (19:45.6) could cross the line, though, C-NS’s Amanda Shuman gained crucial points as she earned fifth place in 19:21.7.
Then, Taylor Parry and Madison Kolakowski put the Northstars in front for good, as Parry finished eighth in 19:49.3 and Kolakowski was ninth in 19:55.7 ahead of Liverpool’s fifth runner, Morgan Chewning-Kulick, who crossed the line in 20:11.5.
None of this suspense surrounded the boys meet, mainly because Liverpool, despite being the visitor’s side, claimed four of the top five spots, and seven of the top nine.
Dan Muldoon claimed the victory for the Warriors, finishing in 16 minutes, 23.5 seconds, putting him clear of C-NS’s Colin Greenseich, who was second in 16:35.8.
It was Drew Henry beginning Liverpool’s decisive spurt, moving to third place in 16:40.6, just ahead of teammate Alex Christiansen, who was fourth in 16:41 flat, and Ben Petrella, who got to fifth place in 16:42.6.
Matt Crough gave the Northstars a sixth-place finish in 16:55.3, but more Liverpool runners followed, with Connor Buck in seventh (16:59.3), Travis Chewning-Kulick in eighth (17:02.7) and Nick LeClair ninth in 17:03.9. C-NS’s Paul DeGennaro was 10th in 17:05.7.
