East Syracuse-Minoa’s girls cross country team got close to winning both ends of Saturday’s Vernon-Verona-Sherrill Invitational, yet settled for runner-up finishes.
It was really close in the girls meet, where the Spartans and Tully went to the wire. But the fact that the Black Knights had a pair of top-five points-earning finishes allowed it to edge ESM by a single point, 48 points to 49.
Tully’s tandem of Ashleigh Crawford (20:24.3) and Ellen Jaworski (20:53.5) each finished just ahead of the Spartans’ best runners, though well behind Hamilton’s young star, Sage Hurta, who won in 19 minutes, 26.2 seconds.
Gabby Pallotta led ESM with a seventh-place time of 21:00.2, with Natalie Marra eighth (21:08.2) and Juliette Miller (21:15.9) in ninth place.
Then Tully’s Mackenzie Bolt (21:43.5) and Christine Gambell (21:51.1) finished in front of the Spartans’ Cindy Brownson, who was 15th in 22:03.3 as Bridget Benz got 17th place in 22:19.5. Also for ESM, Maria Miner was 27th (23:35.8), with Brittany Kubecka (24:20.8) and Paige Courbat (25:08.9) close behind them.
Over in the boys edition of the VVS meet, ESM’s Jesse Perrone won the individual race, his time of 17 minutes, 14.3 seconds enough to hold off Central Square’s Ian Spera (17:19.4) and Sean Kuehn (17:23.6) as the Spartans’ Joe Coogan was fourth, in 17:29.2.
Yet it was the Red Hawks winning, 33 points to ESM’s 39, because Central Square got all of its top runners within the top 12, something the Spartans could not quite match.
Still, Jared Henry gained eighth place, in 18:26.4, with Kyle Willey (18:31.3) racing his way to the top 10, too, and Jake Barker taking 16th place in 19:11.7. Matt Young was 25th (19:44.8), with David Kirchoff 36th in 20:35.8.
CBA competed in the Chittenango Invitational at Jamesville Beach Park, finishing sixth in the girls Varsity Race 1 out of 16 teams with 173 points, this on the same course where the Section III championship meet will take place in early November.
Megan Ann Pierce contended for the individual championship until the final mile, when Skaneateles sophomore Kailtyn Neal pulled away and prevailed in 19:06.4, leaving Pierce to settle for second place in 19:25.1.
Gabrielle Schug finished 31st, in 22:16.5, just ahead of Meredith Strott, who was 33rd in 22:20 flat. Emily Garlatti gained 42nd place in 22:45.8.
CBA’s boys were seventh in the 14-team Varsity Race 1 with 219 points, led by Dominic Morganti, who finished 22nd in 18:21.8. Jack Brower was 29th in 18:45.0, while Matt Curran (19:37.0) and Jack Toole (19:40.5) also ran well.
