When the calendar turns to November, the Fayetteville-Manlius cross country teams get even more serious – which is trouble for anyone that wants to get in their way.
Those serious-minded Hornets would sweep both portions of Saturday’s Section III Class A championship meet, held amid cold, wet, windy and muddy conditions at Vernon-Verona-Sherrill, which also played host to the 2011 state meet.
It was the usual formula on the girls side, where F-M swept the top five and seven of the top eight spots for a perfect total of 15 points, with Liverpool (76 points) the runner-up.
Annika Avery and Alana Pearl put up the two fastest times in any of the four sectional races. Avery finished in 18 minutes, 38.3 seconds, well clear of the field as Pearl slid into second place in 19:03.2.
Jillian Fanning and Mary Barger ran together, with Fanning earning third place in 19:22.1 and Barger (19:22.4) just 0.3 seconds behind her. Katie Brislin (19:28.1) closed out F-M’s top-five sweep, with Michelle Duffy seventh in 19:48.9 and Jenna Farrell eighth in 19:49.3.
Moving to the Class A boys race, Nick Ryan and Bryce Millar zoomed to the front for the state no. 1-ranked Hornets, who had 36 points to easily out-distance runner-up Baldwinsville (68 points) and the rest of the field.
As with Avery, Ryan had, by far, the fastest time in the quartet of sectional contests, pulling away from Millar and prevailing in 15 minutes, 47.5 seconds, which left Millar settling for second place in 16:28.0, third-best of the day as Marcellus’ Ryan Manahan, the Class B champion, was second-fastest in 16:18.3.
Connor Farrell made his way to sixth place in 17:11.8, but the rest of the F-M stars stayed close to each other. Riley Hughes finished 13th, in 17:29.2, just ahead of Colin Fitzgibbons (17:31.1) in 14th place, while Adam Hunt was 16th in 17:33 flat and Charlie Beeler was 17th, in 17:34.9.
In the sectional Class B race, Jamesville-DeWitt came within inches of the team title, getting 79 points, just behind Westhill/Bishop Ludden, who prevailed with 76 points.
Nick Harron did qualify for the state meet, finishing fourth among individuals in 17:22.3, while Billy Hohreiter made his way to seventh place in 17:46.4. East Syracuse-Minoa’s Jesse Perrone just missed advancing, as he was sixth in 17:43.2.
As for the rest of the Red Rams, Jack Healy finished 18th in 18:40.9, but all of Westhill/Ludden’s top runners hit the line before Nick Street (18:40.9) and Isaac Tupper (18:45.0) did in the 25th and 27th spots, respectively.
Brady Wing was 31st, in 18:51.6, with ESM’s Kyle Willey (19:05.7) just ahead of J-D’s Matt Murad (19:09.7) and Andrew Scibilla (19:11.6) as the Spartans’ Jacob Barker (19:21.6) was 48th.
The Class B girls race had something for ESM and J-D to be happy about. In the team portion, the Spartans, with 74 points, beat the Red Rams (87 points) for second place, both of them trailing Westhill/Ludden, who got the top spot with 62 points.
Three runners earned state meet berths this Saturday at Elma Meadows, near Buffalo. J-D’s Rachel Fairbanks got there by finishing second, in 19:48.4, trailing only Marcellus’ Rachel Garn (19:39.2).
Then ESM’s Gabby Pallotta finished fourth in 20:10 flat and Natalie Marra finished fifth, in 20:15.7, both of them keeping the Rams’ Emilee Carpenter, who finished sixth (20:21.9), from reaching the state meet.
From there, the Spartans’ Juliette Miller made her way to 10th place in 20:52.1, while Cindy Brownson finished 23rd in 21:51.3, one spot behind the Rams’ Laura Wengert (21:43.6). J-D’s Samantha Clemons was 28th (22:02.2), one spot ahead of Jess Picone (22:05.7), as the ESM trio of Bridget Benz (22:11.5), Maria Miner (22:16.8) and Morgan Young (22:31.2) all cracked the top 40.
In the sectional Class C meets, CBA’s Megan Ann Pierce returned to action and, with a time of 20:03 flat, finished second to Jordan-Elbridge’s Abby Gugel (19:53.0) and also advanced to the state meet. Maire Kate McGlynn finished 13th, in 21:26.1.
David Carey was 15th (18:28.1) and Jack Lenkiewicz 18th (18:30.0) in the boys race, where the Brothers took seventh in the team standings. Sid Perkins finished 33rd, in 19:00.5.
