Battling through rain, sleet, wind, mud and chilly temperatures, four Liverpool cross country runners earned berths in this weekend’s state meet.
They did so with strong efforts at last Saturday’s Section III Class A championship races, held at the same Vernon-Verona-Sherrill course that was host to the state meet in 2011.
In the girls Class A event, the Warriors finished with 76 points, edging Baldwinsville (86 points) for the runner-up spot behind six-time national champion Fayetteville-Manlius, who swept the top five and seven of the top eight finishing spots.
The Hornets’ domination left a scramble for the remaining state meet berths. Liverpool grabbed two of them, as sophomore Abby McNamara finished in 10th place in 19 minutes, 54.5 seconds and junior Morgan Mahoney was right behind her, in 10th place in 19:55.6.
McNamara and Mahoney join B’ville teammates Annie Peterson and Rachael Miller, plus West Genesee’s Laura Leff, on the Section III All-Star squad heading to the state meet, to be held Saturday at Elma Meadows, near Buffalo.
Meanwhile, in the boys sectional Class A meet at VVS, Liverpool had 77 points, this time behind B’ville (68 points), settling for third place as F-M (36 points) prevailed here, too.
Freshman Ben Petrella led the Warriors’ charge. His fourth-place finish, in a time of 17:01.9, secured a state meet berth, with Dan Muldoon also coming through as the sophomore finished seventh in 17:11.8.
Since Muldoon was fourth among non-F-M participants, he is part of the sectional All-Stars with Petrella, B’ville’s Alec Peinkofer and Josh Perez, and Rome Free Academy’s Erik Winberg.
Behind Petrella and Muldoon, Drew Henry made his way to 18th place, in 17:37 flat, while Alex Christensen finished 22nd in 17:42.9. Connor Buck, in 26th place (17:50.8), rounded out the scoring column, two places ahead of Nick LeClair (17:55.3), with Dylan McCarthy (18:01.8), Travis Chewning-Kulick (18:02.0) and Sean Brais (18:14.9) also finishing in the top 40.
On the girls side, Liverpool’s Emily Butler had a 16th-place time of 20:49.5. Juliana Basla was 21st, in 21:09.7, with Mackenzie White 23rd in 21:21.4. Morgan Chewning-Kulick was 31st (21:40.8), followed by Jessica Turner (22:02.9), Audrey Husenitza (22:17.2), Rebecca Murray (22:43.9) and Jillian Stagnitta (22:47.1) close behind.
Cicero-North Syracuse did not advance a single runner to the state meet, though Nicole Watterud got close on the girls side. Her time of 20:30 flat was sixth among the non-F-M group, leaving her as the first alternate.
As a team, the Northstars were fourth, with 103 points. Jacqlynn Halstead, in 20:51.3, earned 18th place, five spots behind Watterud, while Jillian Norris was 24th in 21:22.7. Amanda Shuman was 26th (21:24.1), with Taylor Parry 30th (21:39.6) and Madison Kolakowski (21:43.2) in 33rd place.
The C-NS boys finished fifth out of 11 Class A sides, with 176 points, led in its efforts by Anthony Lupia, who had a 25th-place time of 17:49.6.
Matt Crough earned 32nd place, in 17:59.5, while Colin Greenseich finished 40th in 18:17.1. Chris Hannan (18:32.4), Paul DeGennaro (18:38.5) and Andrew Bearkland (18:43.9) were all in the top 50, ahead of Nick Erwin (18:51.9), Jared George (18:56.4) and Kevin Cialfi (19:04.8).
