In separate races at last Saturday’s Chittenango Invitational Liverpool and Cicero-North Syracuse’s cross country teams had a trial run through the Jamesville Beach Park course that, in early November, will host the Section III championships.
And the girls Warriors would prevail in Varsity Race 2, as its total of 32 points fended off runner-up Baldwinsville, who had 61 points and claimed a tie-breaker over Ithaca for that second spot.
Eighth-grader Maia Henry led Liverpool, finishing second in a time of 19 minutes, 59.4 seconds. Sophomore Juliana Basla was fourth, in 20:09 flat, while Abby McNamara was fifth in 20:21.1.
Morgan Mahoney, in ninth place (20:43.8), also cracked the top 10. Morgan Chewning-Kulick (21:33.4) and Jillian Stagnitta (21:37.7) were 14th and 15th, respectively, with Audrey Husenitza 21st (22:03.8) and another eighth-grader, Kristina Moore, getting 26th place in 22:32.1.
The C-NS girls were part of Varsity Race 1, picking up 60 points, but settling for second place behind Skaneateles (56 points) as the Lakers’ Kaitlyn Neal won that race in 19:06.4, the fastest girls time of the entire meet.
Jacqlynn Halstead made her way to third place in 19:58.2, with Jilliann Norris sixth in 20:29.8. Amanda Shuman, in 20:57.2, earned ninth place as Savannah Stevens (21:31.9) was 19th. Lauren Carr (21:37.7), Taylor Parry (21:38.4), Maddy Kolakowski (21:50.9), Emily Dolan (21:52.7) and Madison Gross (22:14.7) finished within the top 30.
Meanwhile, the C-NS boys team also was second in its Varsity 1 race, getting 41 points, which was ahead of everyone except West Genesee, who prevailed with 23 points as it had four of the top five finishers, including Will Randall, who won in 17:02.5.
Andrew Bearkland finished third in a clocking of 17:08.9. Chris Hannan, in 17:17.5, earned sixth place, while Paul DeGennaro was eighth in 17:28.4 and Colin Greenseich (17:32.2) was 10th. Jared George (17:53.2) and Eric Bowen (18:06.9) were 14th and 16th, respectively, as Joe Tricarico (18:28.3) made his way to 24th place.
Liverpool’s boys team, missing some of its top runners (including Alex Christensen, Dan Muldoon, Connor Buck and Ben Petrella), found itself in a tough, competitive Varsity Race 2, only getting to fourth place with 100 points behind Rochester McQuaid, Ithaca and Baldwinsville.
Among the Warrior runners that made it, Dylan McCarthy finished seventh, in 17:13.3. Ryan Comstock made his way to 10th place in 17:16.9, while Sean Brais (17:47.0) was 18th. Jacob Rowell was 25th (17:58.0) as Adam Sherwin (18:24.8) took 40th place.
Liverpool and C-NS both had to wait 24 hours to start regular-season action in the CNY Counties League National division due to Wednesday’s heat postponement.
For the boys Warriors, things began smoothly in last Thursday’s 15-49 victory over Syracuse East. Christensen won the race at Long Branch Park in 17:47. Muldoon, Buck and Petrella each finished in 17:54, while McCarthy (18:02) rounded out the top 10. Rowell, in a time of 18:11, led the next Liverpool group, with Comstock (18:13) and Brais (18:15) close behind. Sherwin finished 10th.
Liverpool’s girls beat Syracuse East by that exact same 15-49 margin, as the top three runners –McNamara, Basla and Henry – each finished in 21:03, with McNamara getting the edge at the line.
Stagnitta, in 21:26, took fourth place, with Mahoney fifth (21:34) and Moore (21:49) in sixth place. Chewning-Kulick and Rebecca Murray were seventh and eighth, respectively, while Husenitza (24:18) and Hannah Putnam (24:21) grabbed the next two spots.
When C-NS resumed on Thursday, against Syracuse West, it won 19-43 on the boys side, led again by Greenseich, who followed up his Central Square Invitational victory from Sept. 7 by covering the Corcoran High School course in 17:44.
Though Syracuse West’s Soloman Lawrence was second (18:09), the Northstars occupied the next five spots, led by Bearkland, who was third in 18:11.
DeGennaro, Hannan (18:43 each), George and Bowen (18:44 each) finished together, while Tricarico was ninth (18:58) and Evan Russell (19:30) gained the 10th spot. Owen Ukleya, Brian Traub, Allen Garnes, Jake Dehm and Zach Wagner each finished under 20 minutes, too.
As for the girls meet, that was a 15-50 sweep for C-NS where each of the top seven runners finished within less than 10 seconds of each other.
Stevens won the race, in 22:51, one second ahead of Kolakowski. Shuman was third (22:53), followed closely by Parry, Halstead (22:54 each), Norris (22:55) and Gross (23 minutes flat). Dolan (23:09), Ashley Irvine (23:26) and Molly Camire (23:33) also had top-10 efforts.
