Sophomore Genny Corcoran led the way, and the rest of the Westhill/Bishop Ludden girls cross country team followed suit, all the way to a Section III Class B championship.
In last Saturday’s sectional meet at Jamesville Beach Park, Westhill/Ludden dominated the Class B race, picking up 46 points, well clear of runner-up Jamesville-DeWitt (102 points) and 12 other sides, part of a big day for local runners.
Corcoran, in a time of 19 minutes, 28.2 seconds, beat Chittenango’s Anna Galbraith (19:37.3) by more than nine seconds, and her teammates quickly followed.
Erin Morrell was sixth, in 20:03.9, while Annibel Coolican took 10th place in 20:17.4. Caroline Coates made her way to 13th place in 20:40.8 as Emily Washburn finished 16th, in 20:55.6, to close out the scoring column. Mary Kate Washburn was 18th in exactly 21 minute as Erin Christensen (21:23.1) made her way to 23rd place.
Westhill/Ludden now advances to the state championship meet, set for this Saturday at Queensbury High School. The Class B race starts at 12:10 p.m.
Nearly matching their female counterparts, the Westhill/Ludden boys side had to settle for second place in its Class B sectional meet with 80 points, just ahead of J-D (90 points), but behind Whitesboro, who won with 59 points.
Still, junior Liam Rodgers finished fifth in a time of 16:59.4 to join East Syracuse-Minoa’s Jesse Perrone, Mexico’s Jacob Zedack and Jamesville-DeWitt teammates Patrick Dye and Isaac Tupper on the sectional All-Star team headed to the state meet.
Behind Rodgers, Kyle Fitch finished 17th, in 17:44.7, beating out Garnet Remillard (17:46.9), who was 18th. Alec Walsh finished 21st in 17:51.8 and Josh Owens (17:57.3) was 23rd, with Vincenzo Carr (18:19.7), Brian Celeste (18:22.9) and Dan DeMauro (18:34.1) also in the top 50.
Moving up to Class A, where Fayetteville-Manlius pulled off yet another sectional sweep, West Genesee girls star Laura Leff advanced to the state meet by finishing third in a time of 18:40.9 behind F-M teammates Annika Avery (18:02.0) and Jenna Farrell (18:32.9). Leff posted the fourth-fastest overall time of the sectional meet.
As a team, the girls Wildcats finished third behind F-M and Liverpool. Elise Dunshee was 20th, in 20:36.7, just ahead of Lindsay Weaver (20:39.3) and Maria Matkoski (20:40.4) in 21st and 22nd, respectively. Alicia Sakran was 26th in 20:56.7, ahead of Sarah Ferranti (21:17.8), Rachel Flynn (21:54.5), Maggie Guinto (22:00.7) and Megan Farmer (22:06.7).
WG’s boys also had a third-place showing with 90 points, also behind F-M and Liverpool, but could get none of its individuals to the state meet, though David Leff finished 12th in 16:24.3 and Will Randall, in 16:31.5, made his way to 13th place.
Nate Conroy was right behind them, taking 16th place in 16:51.6, while Jack Erhard got 22nd place in 17:04.7 and Sean Beney (17:21.1) was 27th. Mike Lannon was 32nd (17:33.7), with Matt Romano (17:40.8) and Mike Richards (17:56.9) also notching top-50 finishes.
Moving to Class C, on the girls side Marcellus senior Rachel Garn could not quite repeat her OHSL Liberty division victory from Oct. 23, finishing second in a time of 19:09.4 behind Skaneateles sophomore Kaitlyn Neal, who won in 19:02.4.
Still, Garn easily qualified for the state meet, as did Jordan-Elbridge’s Abby Gugel, who finished third in 19:43.2, all part of a sectional race where the Mustangs finished fourth, with 102 points, and the Eagles got fifth place with 137 points as Skaneateles (45 points) went to the top.
For Marcellus, Eliza Bell finished 18th, in 21:30.8, while Emily Townsend (22:15.0) got ahead of Dominique Weeks (22:30.8) for 30th place and Tori Stopen (23:05.4) was 41st. J-E saw Miranda Malvaso step up to take 21st place in 21:44.3, while Marissa Malvaso (22:53.6), Emily Kuehnle (23:26.2) and Natalie Emerick (24:26.7) trailed them.
It was J-E finishing in third in boys Class C with 104 points behind Holland Patent (63 points) and Adirondack (87 points), with Marcellus taking fifth place, though the Mustangs’ Patrick McGuane earned a trip to the state meet when he finished fifth in a time of 16:54.8.
No one on the Eagles’ side advanced, with Nick Parkolap faring best for J-E as he took 12th place in 17:39.1. Jack Gugel, working his way back from injury, could only manage 20th place in 18:00.9 behind teammate Nathan Hollis (17:43.8) in 15th place. Hunter Brunelle (18:28.1), Austin Milton (18:37.3), Jake Patterson (18:42.4) and Alex Parkolap (18:42.4) all had top-40 efforts.
For Marcellus, Alex Stopen had a strong sectional race, getting to 14th place in 17:43.6. Further back, Alex Zamojski was 34th, in 18:28.9, with Steve Larison 37th in 18:42.9. Kevin Pierce (18:58.1), Michael Brown (18:58.9), Andrew Marsh (19:00.8) and Matt Strempel (19:02.1). Solvay’s Eric Goodrich had his team’s best effort, getting to 24th place in a time of 18:08.8.
