In a pair of close, exciting races, the Marcellus cross country teams both won narrow decisions over Hannibal on Wednesday to claim their respective OHSL Liberty division openers.

The boys Mustangs beat the Warriors by a single point, 28-29, while in the girls race Marcellus did just enough to get past Hannibal 27-32.

It helped the Marcellus boys that Patrick McGuane won the race in 15 minutes, 23 seconds, beating Hannibal’s Ben Slate (15:43) by a comfortable margin. But the Warriors also took the second and third spots, putting the Mustangs behind.

Even with Alex Stopen finishing fifth in 16:18, Alex Zamajski getting sixth place (16:35) and Steve Larison taking seventh place in 16:57, Marcellus did not get the clinching point until Kevin Pierce crossed the line in ninth place at 16:59 and Mike Brown, in 10th (17:10), finished four seconds ahead of Hannibal’s fifth competitor, Ben Raymond.

Over in the girls race, Rachel Garn won in 18:17, winning by the same 20-second margin over Hannibal’s McKenzie Mattison (18:37) as McGuane did in the boys race. And once more, Hannibal had the third and fourth-place finishers.

The difference was that Marcellus owned the next five finishing spots, which proved enough for victory. Eliza Bell was fifth, in 19:32, while Emily Townsend (19:47) edged teammate Dominique Weeks (19:48) for sixth place. Schuyler Stuart was eighth (20:13) and Tori Stopen (20:25) clinched her team’s victory.

West Genesee’s cross country teams each earned league wins last Wednesday, sweeping Auburn to improve to 2-0 on the season.

As the girls Wildcats swept the Maroons 15-50, Laura Leff pulled away from everyone, her time of 18 minutes, 42.9 seconds topping all but nine of the boys runners in the same meet. Elise Dunshee, in 21:45.9, won the battle for second over Maria Matkowski (21:48.6) and Lindsay Weaver (21:49.8).

In the next pack, Sara Ferranti finished fifth, in 22:30.3, ahead of Alicia Sakran (22:34.5). Maggie Guinto (22:54.5), Delaney Nolan (22:59), Megan Farmer (23:35.5) and Elisabeth Beardsley (23:35.8) also had top-10 effort.s

In the boys’ 18-42 decision at the Middle School, Jack Erhard won in a time of 17:11.9, exactly one second better than Nate Conroy (17:12.9), while Will Randall (17:15.4) completed a 1-2-3 sweep.

Though the Maroons’ Jordan Middleton finished fourth in 17:26.6, David Leff, in fifth place (17:32.7), led a sweep of the remaining top 10 spots for the Wildcats. Mike Lannon was sixth, in 17:49.7, with Sean Beney (17:55.6), Connor Smith (18:34.2), Matt Romano (18:38.3) and Russ Graziano (18:43.3) following.

As that went on, Westhill/Bishop Ludden opened its OHSL Liberty division slate with a sweep of Solvay, prevailing 16-49 in the boys race and 15-49 in the girls race at Long Branch Park.

Jeff Goodrich won for the boys Warriors, his time of 16:58 two seconds better than teammate Liam Rodgers, while Kyle Fitch (17:08) edged Dan DeMauro (17:09) for third place.

Solvay’s Eric Goodrich was fifth, in 17:19, but he was the lone Bearcat in the top 10. Vincenzo Carr got to sixth place in 17:22, closely followed by Alec Walsh (17:44), with Garret Remillard (17:49), Brian Celeste (17:54) and Cain Ballard (18:02) also in the top 10.

Genny Corcoran, in a time of 20:12, beat Emily Washburn (20:16) by four seconds to win the girls race, with Erin Morrell (20:54) in third.

Annibel Coolican and Erin Christensen each crossed the line in 21:04, with Caroline Coates sixth in 21:11. Molly Clark (21:12), Mary Washburn (21:13) and Caroline Black (21:19) also ran well as Solvay’s Ashlee Riggins led her side, finishing in 22:43.

Jordan-Elbridge routed Cazenovia 15-47 in the boys race, sweeping the top five. Jack Gugel, Austin Milton, Jake Patterson, Nick Parkolap and Dylan Whittico each crossed the finish line in 18:21, with Milton getting credit for the victory. Alex Parkolap was seventh, in 18:45, with Brendan Bourque (19:10) and Tyler Jackson (19:19) also recording top-10 finishes.

But the Eagles lost the girls race 21-38 to Cazenovia, even though Abby Gugel, in a time of 19:05, won the individual race by half a minute over the Lakers’ Jeanette Cudney (19:35). Antonia Malvaso was sixth, in 20:47, while Miranda Malvaso got eighth place in 21:10.