It was a busy cross country Saturday on two fronts, as Fayetteville-Manlius and other local teams went to the Bronx for the annual Manhattan Invitational, while others stayed closer to home for the Tully Invitational.
F-M’s Nick Ryan was dead-set on winning the featured Eastern States championship division in the Manhattan meet, and nearly did so.
On the 2.5-mile Van Cortlandt Park course, Ryan finished in 12 minutes, 5.7 seconds, topped only by St. Benedict’s Edward Cheserek, who won in 11:58.7.
As a team, the Hornets were fourth out of 28 entries with 218 points, with Bryce Millar also among the top competitors as he sped to seventh place in 12:27.2. Colin Fitzgibbons made his way to 54th place in 13:14.9, ahead of Riley Hughes in 70th (13:23.9) and Connor Farrell (13:35.2) in 85th place.
On the girls side, the Hornets, still without Jillian Fanning (recovering from a minor quad strain), had 90 points in its Eastern States race, finishing second to Tatnall, from Delaware, who won with 81 points.
Alana Pearl earned eighth place in 14:46.2, just ahead of Katie Brislin (14:48.3) in ninth place. Annika Avery finished 20th in 15:10.8 as Michelle Duffy was 24th in 15:23.1. Jessica Howe, in 15:33.9, and Hannah Smith, in 15:35.9, earned the 29th and 30th spots, respectively.
F-M’s girls did get a win, though, at the Tully Invitational, picking up 21 points to run away from the rest in the Large School division as Homer, with 71 points, was the runner-up.
Seven of the top 11 spots went to Hornets, and again it was Jenna Farrell setting the pace, getting third place in 19:55.1. Colleen Englert was fourth, in 20:00.1, with Megan Menz in sixth place (20:09.1) and Bea Panozzo (20:16.3) in seventh place. Mia Blatt, in ninth place (20:29.3), led the next group as Caitlin Ferro was 10th (20:40.4) and Emma Noble was 11th, in 20:41.9.
Andrew Berge was third in the boys Large School race at Tully, posting a time of 16:55.7, while Charlie Beeler made his way to seventh place in 17:14.2 and Kyle Barber was 19th in 18:01 flat.
Back at the Manhattan Invitational, the East Syracuse-Minoa girls team had a strong effort in the Varsity D race, claiming fourth place in a field of 26 with 193 points.
Gabby Pallotta, with a time of 15:46.1, landed in 13th place, while Natalie Marra got to 19th place in 15:58.4. Juilette Miller finished 24th, in 16:04.2, as Cindy Brownson (17:01.9) and Bridget Benz (17:04.8) were close to each other in the middle of the pack.
J-D’s girls side finished eighth in the 27-team Varsity E division. Rachel Fairbanks covered the 2.5-mile Van Cortlandt Course in 15:23.5 to finish sixth.
Emilee Carpenter, in 15:53.3, took 16th place, while Samantha Clemons was 46th in 16:39.7. Laura Wengert (16:51.8) and Jessie Piccone (17:01.2) were further back.
Meanwhile, the boys Red Rams, in the Varsity A race, got 10th place out of 30 entries, with ESM in 24th.
This was despite the fact that Jesse Perrone, in 18th place (13:20.7), beat J-D’s top runner, Billy Hohreiter (13:38.1), with Nick Harron getting to 42nd place in 13:47.4. Jack Healy (14:14.1), Isaac Tupper (14:18.4) and Andrew Scibilia (14:26.3) rounded out the scoring.
CBA’s cross country sides were at the Tully Invitational, where the girls side took fourth place in the Small School division. Megan Ann Pierce, in 19:10.5, was second to Fabius-Pompey star Erin McConnell (18:10.4) as Maire Kate McGlynn was sixth, in 20:05.9, and Gabrielle Schug finished 18th in 21:12.2.
David Carey finished third in the boys Small School race in a time of 16:56.5. Sid Perkins (18:51.5) and Jack Brower (18:52.2) were 31st and 32nd, respectively, with Will Adams, Kyle Barker, Geoff Parkes and Tom Reith all within the top 50.
