Cross country teams remained busy in the lead-up to league and Section III championship meets during the latter stages of October. That included Marcellus and West Genesee, who both traveled to Saturday’s Marathon Invitational, where again Ryan Manahan proved the class of the field.
The Mustangs’ senior won the boys seeded race in 16 minutes, 6.8 seconds, nearly half a minute ahead of Vestal’s Dana Carris, who was second in 16:35.1. Justin Garn gave Marcellus a 25th-place finish in a clocking of 17:48.9.
West Genesee’s boys team was second behind Corning in both the Division I and overall standings., with Marcellus fifth on the Division I side.
Behind Manahan, the Wildcats’ Will Randall finished 11th, in 16:59.4, with Nate Conroy 12th in 17:03 flat. Mike Lannon was 15th (17:18.0), just ahead of Kal Strickland, who was 16th in 17:20.5. Jack Erhard was 20th in 17:30.1.
As WG took fourth and Marcellus ninth in the girls varsity race, the Mustangs’ Rachel Garn nearly won the individual title, tailing Windsor’s Maddie Zeitz right to the end. Garn finished in 19:17.7, just 1.7 seconds behind Zeitz in the second spot.
For the Wildcats, Lindsay Weaver led the way, grabbing ninth place in 20:14.7. Sarah Ferranti was 24th, in 21:18.5, while Elise Dunshee was 29th in 21:24.9. Abby Kastick settled into 33rd place in 21:33.4, one spot behind the Mustangs’ Molly McGuane (21:28.2).
As this went on, Jordan-Elbridge’s sibling tandem of Abby and Jack Gugel won their respective divisions at the Weedsport Invitational, and the boys Eagles claimed team honors with 41 points, six points better than the host Warriors.
Jack Gugel won in 17:23.4, nearly 16 seconds ahead of Weedsport’s Seth Baker, and had lots of help. Nick Parkolap was ninth, in 18:53.9, while Austin Milton took 10th place in 18:57.7. Christian Marrero was 12th, in 19:20.5, beating out Jacob Patterson (19:21.6) and Nathan Hollis (19:30.7), with Bill Direnzo (20:03.0) also getting a top-20 finish.
Over in the girls race, Abby Gugel’s winning time of 21:02.7 was almost half a minute better than Mynderse’s Erica Barbay (21:29.9), with the J-E girls sliding into second place with 71 points behind Port Byron, who won with 52 points.
Brianna Byrnes found her way to eighth place, in 23:22.4, with Natalie Emerick 11th in 24:14.2. Sarah Knapp finished in 35th place in 27:36.4.
A battle between two neighboring OHSL Liberty division cross country teams last Wednesday resulted in Westhill/Bishop Ludden sweeping Solvay.
The boys race was closer, the Warriors prevailing 24-37 over the Bearcats, even though Solvay’s Matt Cregan won the individual race in a time of 16 minute, 56 seconds and Cody McCarthy (17:31) finished third.
Peter Lynch began Westhill/Ludden’s charge with a second-place time of 17:24. Liam Rodgers was fourth, in 17:36, with Casey Bunce, Alec Walsh (17:43 each) and Dan DeMauro (17:44) filling the next three spots. Kyle Fitch was eighth (17:46) as Vinny Carr (17:50) beat Solvay’s Eric Goodrich (17:56) to the line.
Meanwhile, in the girls race Westhill/Ludden had the top six runners, led by Annibel Coolican, who won in a time of 20:33, one second ahead of Emily Washburn.
Erin Morrell was third, in 20:58, with Caroline Coates (21:09) and Genny Corcoran (21:11) in the fourth and fifth spots, respectively, and Mary Kate Washburn (21:46) in sixth. Solvay’s Ashlee Riggins (22:27) was seventh, in front of Caroline Black, Claire Sheen and Anastaija Useva.
J-E, thanks to the Gugels, won both individual parts of last Wednesday’s meet against CBA, but only got half of the team honors, winning 25-34 in the boys meet but losing to the Brothers 15-50 on the girls side.
Jack Gugel, in a swift 14:00.5, beat CBA’s David Carey for top individual honors. Austin Milton was fourth, in 15:22.6, with Nathan Hollis fifth in 15:28.3.
Parklap, with his seventh-place time of 15:31.2, led J-E’s next group as DiRenzo claimed eighth place in 15:41.6. Patterson (15:47.3) and Marrero (15:54.4) also had top-10 efforts.
Moving to the girls meet, Abby Gugel pulled away, her time of 16:47.1 nearly half a minute better than CBA’s Maire Kate McGlynn (17:10 flat), who was second. Byrnes was fourth, in 18:25.6, while merick was seventh (20:04.3) and Jen Hartwell (22:06.5) made her way to eighth place.
