Even though it managed to save a split out of its showdown with Liverpool, the Cicero-North Syracuse cross country teams could not do so against Baldwinsville last Wednesday afternoon.
At least it was close on the girls side, where the state Class A no. 11-ranked Northstars got close to the Bees before taking a 26-30 defeat, B’ville seizing the CNY Counties League National division regular-season title in the process.
Jacqlynn Halstead still won the individual race on the Durgee Junior High School course in 18 minutes, 24.18 seconds, but two B’ville runners, Rachael Miller (18:32.74) and Annie Peterson (18:33.93), followed.
And though Nicole Watterud finished fourth in 18:43.84 and Amanda Shulman (18:53.87) was fifth, B’ville decided matters by placing four of the next five runners, only Taylor Parry (19:36.87) interrupting as she gained ninth place.
Meanwhle, the C-NS boys team ran up against a B’ville side that’s no. 4 in the state Class A poll and proved it, also clinching the league crown by beating the Northstars 16-44.
Led by Andy Fleming, who won in 16:10.55, B’ville swept the top four spots before C-NS’s Colin Greenseich took fifth place in 16:24.74. Two more B’ville runners followed before Anthony Lupia took eighth, in 16:57.65, while Chris Hannan was ninth (17:01.55), edging out Matt Crough (17:01.81), who was 10th.
As for Liverpool, it had little trouble in its meet against Syracuse West, winning a 15-42 decision on the girls side and prevailing 20-43 on the boys side.
Rebecca Murray won the girls race in 21:13, leading a top-five sweep as most of the top runners rested. Jillian Stagnitta finished second in 22 minutes flat, just ahead of Lindsey Thiel (22:01) in third, while Audrey Husenitza (22:28) and Catherine Vann (22:46) earned fourth and fifth, respectively. Rachel Turner had a 10th-place clocking of 24:30.
On the other hand, the top boys Warriors did run, lining up behind Syracuse West star Eli Welling, who won in 17:20.5 as Alex Christensen, in second place in 18:23, led the chase pack.
Dylan McCarthy, who was third in 18:26, was in front of a group where Dylan McCarthy (18:27.5), Dan Muldoon (18:28) and Travis Chewning-Kulick (18:28.5) all finished together. And right behind them were Connor Buck (18:29), Jacob Rowell (18:29.3), Sean Brais (18:29.6) and Jeremy Goetz (18:30), who all made the top 10.
Now they all went to Saturday’s Manhattan Invitational at Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx, where the Liverpool and C-NS sides would all find some degree of success.
In fact, the Liverpool boys won the Varsity E division with 102 points, edging out Ward Melville (109 points) for top honors.
Muldoon, in particular, stepped up on the 2.5-mile course, finishing fifth in 13:06.7, with Ben Petrella rising to 17th place in 13:30.6. Christensen needed 13:37.3 to finish 23rd, while Chewning-Kulick was 27th in 13:40.9 and Drew Henry (13:42.9) was 30th. Buck (13:51.4) was 41st.
C-NS’s girls had a second-place effort in the Varsity C division, where its 85 points was just behind Pearl River’s total of 82 points. Halstead ran to third place in 15:21.5, with Waterrud claiming ninth place in 15:35.4. Shuman was 17th (15:51 flat) as Parry earned 21st place in 16:01.1. Jillian Norris, in 35th place (16:28.0), rounded out the scoring column.
The girls Warriors were also second in the Varsity B race with 82 points behind Rush-Henrietta, who won with 50 points. Abby McNamara claimed ninth place, in 15:35.8, with Morgan Mahoney sliding into 10th place in 15:37.7 and Emily Butler 16th in 15:57.3. Ashley Letteney (16:12.1) and Juliana Basla (16:13.2) were 23rd and 24th, respectively.
