Led again by senior Jeanette Cudney, the Cazenovia girls cross country team recorded a strong second-place finish during Saturday’s Section III Class C championship race at Jamesville Beach Park.
With 66 points, Cazenovia topped everyone except state no. 2-ranked Skaneteles, who prevailed with 45 points as Hannibal (98 points) edged Marcellus (102 points) for third place.
Individually, Cudney, like everyone else, ended up chasing Skaneateles sophomore Kaitlyn Neal, who backed up her top state ranking by winning the race in 19:02.4, exactly seven seconds ahead of Marcellus’ Rachel Garn.
But Cudney still ran quite well, beating the 20-minute mark on the hilly, muddy Jamesville Beach course. Her time of 19 minutes, 57.4 seconds put her in sixth place, but fourth among individuals outside of Skaneateles.
That means Cudney will join Garn, Abby Gugel (Jordan-Elbridge), Megan Ann Pierce (CBA) and Haylie Virginia (Phoenix) on a strong Section III All-Star squad that will travel to Queensbury for this Saturday’s state Class C championship, which starts at 10:40 a.m.
As for Cazenovia’s other runners, it was also a strong performance as sophomore Mya Walters took 12th place in 20:57.6, while senior Hayley Frost made her way to 16th place in 21:21.1.
Sophomore Mimi Gabor was 22nd (21:47.9) as senior Malone Gabor, in 27th place (22:02.3), rounded out the scoring column. Another sophomore, Kaitlin Rossiter, was just two spots behind Malone Gabor in 29th place (22:14.7) as sophomore Adrien Owens finished 37th in 22:51.6.
Up in the Class B girls sectional race, Chittenango junior Anna Galbraith turned in a sensational effort, as her time of 19 minutes, 37.3 seconds put her in second place, trailing only Westhill/Bishop Ludden’s Genny Corcoran, who won in 19:28.2.
So Galbraith is also going to the state meet, leading a sectional All-Star team that includes Homer’s Jade Auchmoody, Jamesville-DeWitt’s Emilee Carpenter, South Jefferson’s Jackie Miller and Cortland’s Hayley Tasselmyer. The Class B girls state race start at 12:10 p.m.
As a team, Chittenango was eighth out of 14 sides in Class B with 201 points as Westhill/Ludden (46 points) easily won. Hayley Foran finished 35th, in 22:19 flat, while Kaitlyn Swain took 43rd place in 22:58.4. Kailey Cavarese (24:02.2), Brooke Busa (24:05.7) and Alyssa Crystal (24:11.4) ran close together as Bailey Price finished in 24:27.8.
Moving to the boys sectional meets, Chittenango had a strong showing, the Bears getting to fourth place among 17 Class B sides with 125 points. Only Whitesboro (59 points), Westhill/Ludden (80 points) and J-D (90 points) fared better.
By just two spots, Chittenango sophomore Robbie Howard missed advancing to the state meet, finishing 10th overall in 17:28.8, just ahead of freshman Mike Capeling, who was 12th in 17:36.1. The rest of the Bears were further back as Isaac Czarnecki finished 29th, in 18:06 flat, with Jonathan Roberts 35th (18:17.4) and Kenny Galbraith taking 44th place in 18:31.2.
In the boys Class C race, Cazenovia was 10th among 15 teams with 260 points. Kevin Ridings led the Lakers, the junior finishing 16th in 17:44.9, while Sean Satchwell was 42nd in 18:48.2. Drew Devendorf was 63rd in 19:22.3, ahead of Connor Carroll (20:09.4) and Carter Biviano (20:13.3) at the line.
