Though the races were bigger and the fields larger, the Liverpool cross country teams had the same result – a clean sweep of the CNY Counties League National division.
During Wednesday afternoon’s league meet at Baldwinsville, the Warriors won on both sides, in each case leaving Cicero-North Syracuse and Bees far behind in the first of what it hopes to be a month full of meaningful championship meets.
Liverpool’s boys, ranked no. 2 behind Fayetteville-Manlius in the state Class A rankings, had seven of the top nine finishers on its way to 18 points, leaving C-NS, no. 20 in those same state rankings, in second with 53 points.
Ben Petrella won the race, covering the 2.95-mile Durgee Junior High School course in 15 minutes, 13.9 seconds, while Dan Muldoon, in 15:31.4, held off B’ville’s Jack Martin (15:34.0) for second place.
Connor Buck led the next wave, taking fourth place in 15:36.8, with Nick LeClair in fifth place (15:40.8) and Alex Christensen grabbing sixth place in 15:49.7. Dylan McCarthy took eighth place in 16:00.5, just in front of Ryan Comstock, who was ninth in 16:02 flat.
Amid all this, C-NS’s Colin Greenseich led his side with an eighth-place clocking of 15:52.5. The next four Northstars finished in order as Paul DeGennaro took 10th place in 16:09.7, with Eric Bowen 11th (16:16.7), Andrew Bearkland 12th (16:17.6) and Chris Hannan taking 13th place in 16:24.8.
Then three more Liverpool runners – Sean Brais (14th, 16:37.1), Jacob Rowell (16th, 16:43.6) and Ty Brownlow (16:51.5) – got inside the top 20. C-NS’s Jared George finished 23rd, in 17:04.2, while Joe Tricarico (17:09.9) and Brian Traub (17:10.1) also had top-30 efforts.
In the girls CNYCL National race, much the same thing took place as Liverpool’s state Class A no. 12-ranked team prevailed with 23 points, while C-NS, with 51 points, had to hold off the hosts from B’ville (56 points) for that runner-up spot in the team standings.
Just as in the boys race, Liverpool went 1-2 on the girls side, with Abby McNamara winning the race in 18 minutes, 28.2 seconds as Morgan Mahoney made her way to second place in 18:37.3 and Juliana Basla finished fourth, in 18:49.5.
The Warriors had six of the top 10 runners, as Maia Henry, in 18:57.8, claimed seventh place. Jillian Stagnitta, in 19:36.8, got ninth place, with Morgan Chewning-Kulick (19:39.8) getting 10th place.
On the C-NS side, Jiliann Norris had the best finish, getting to sixth place in a clocking of 18:56.9, two spots ahead of Jacqlynn Halstead (19:12.4) in eighth place. Maddy Kolakowski, in 19:42.1, earned 11th place, with Amanda Shuman 12th in 20:01.3.
Five other Northstars made their way to the top 20. Taylor Parry, who was 14th in 20:09.4, led a quartet of runners that included Madison Gross (15th, 20:14.8), Savannah Stevens (16th, 20:25.5) and Molly Camire, who was 17th in 20:26.7 as Emily Dolan (20:45.3) finished 20th.
