Once more, the Liverpool and Cicero-North Syracuse cross country teams met with each other before the post-season, this time gathering at Jamesville Beach Park for last Saturday’s Chittenango Invitational.
In the Varsity 2 girls race, the Warriors, with 37 points, would prevail over the Northstars, who was second with 48 points. East Syracuse-Minoa was third with 81 points.
What keyed this outcome was the fact that Liverpool’s top two runners, Abby McNamara and Morgan Mahoney, both beat C-NS’s Jacqlynn Halstead to the finish line.
McNamara was second in 19 minutes, 24.4 seconds, exactly two seconds ahead of Mahoney (19:26.4) as Halstead was fourth in 19:28.7. Each of them trailed the individual champion, Jamesville-DeWitt’s Rachel Fairbanks, who won in 19:16.5.
Further back, C-NS’s Nicole Waterrud (19:51.2) and Amanda Shuman (19:57.1) were seventh and eighth, respectively, but three more Liverpool runners followed. Emily Butler was ninth, in 20:13.3, with Juliana Basla in 11th (20:25.1) and Mackenzie White getting to 12th place in 20:29.3.
Even as the Northstars’ Taylor Parry finished 14th (20:35.2) and Jillian Norris (20:38 flat) was 15th, Liverpool showcased further depth. Jessica Turner (20:57.8), Rebecca Murray (20:58.6), Morgan Chewning-Kulick (21:09.0) and Jillian Stagnitta (21:12.1) all beat C-NS’s Madison Kolakowski (21:13.3) to the line.
Over in the boys Varsity 2 race, Liverpool, with 58 points, again topped C-NS (86 points), but both trailed visiting Rochester McQuaid, from section V, who won with 46 points.
On the Warriors’ side, Nick LeClair led the way, getting to fifth place in 16:57.4, with Dylan McCarthy seventh in 17:01.8 and Connor Buck ninth in 17:09.8.
They all beat C-NS’s top runners, a trio that began with Anthony Lupia taking 11th place in 17:19.9 as Colin Greenseich (17:22.0) and Matt Crough (17:26.1) followed in the 12th and 13th spots.
Then the Warriors’ Sean Brais made his way to 16th place, in 17:31.7, with Jeremy Goetz in 21st (17:45.7) to round out the scoring column. And Liverpool’s Jacob Rowell (18:03.8) found himself just behind C-NS’s Chris Hannan (17:58.5), but ahead of Northstar runners Kevin Cialfi (18:04.2) and Paul DeGennaro (18:04.8) within the top 30.
