In a four-day span, the Liverpool boys cross country team has accomplished quite a bit.
Fresh off its impressive Sept. 21 victory at the Queensbury Invitational on the course that will host the state championships later this fall, the state Class A no. 3-ranked Warriors came back home to Long Branch Park on Tuesday afternoon and knocked off Cicero-North Syracuse by a score of 15-48.
And the fun didn’t stop there for Liverpool, who also saw its girls cross country side, no. 12 in the state rankings, overcome Jacqlynn Halstead’s individual victory to beat no. 10-ranked C-NS 20-37 to complete a Warrior sweep of this neighborhood rivalry.
What made Liverpool’s boys effort more impressive was that it was not facing an overmatched opponent. C-NS occupied the no. 11 spot in the state poll and had won meets in Central Square and New Hartford earlier this month.
But the Northstars had no answer for the Warriors’ depth, as the hosts claimed the top six spots, led by Dan Muldoon, who covered the Long Branch course in 16 minutes, 9.8 seconds, just ahead of Ben Petrella, who was second in 16:12.2.
Alex Christensen, in 16:22.1, edged out Liverpool teammate Connor Buck (16:23.0) for third place, while Nick LeClair was fifth in 16:31 and Dylan McCarthy earned sixth place in 16:42.
Colin Greenseich was right behind McCarthy, as C-NS’s top runner had to settle for seventh place in 16:44, with the Northstars’ Chris Hannan (16:52.5) in eighth place. Then two more Liverpool runners rounded out the top 10 as Ryan Comstock was ninth (17:09.6) and Jacob Rowell (17:12.9) slid into 10th place.
In the girls race, even with all the depth that C-NS possessed, and even though Halstead was able to claim an individual victory in 19 minutes, 12.4 seconds, Liverpool would rule the day by taking the next five finishing spots.
Abby McNamara led the Warriors, getting second place in 19:16.4, exactly 10 seconds better than eighth-grader Maia Henry (19:26.4) in third place. Juliana Basla gained fourth place in 19:36.6 at the tail end of the lead pack.
Another pack followed nearly a minute later, with Liverpool’s Morgan Mahoney settling into fifth place in 20:27.7 and Morgan Chewning-Kulick (20:31.5) earning sixth place.
Amanda Shuman gave C-NS a seventh-place finish in 20:38.8, with Jilliann Norris (20:44.6) edging out Liverpool’s Jillian Stagnitta (20:44.9) for the eighth spot and Taylor Parry (21:03.9) in 10th place for the Northstars.
