The hot weather broke just in time for East Syracuse-Minoa’s season-opening cross country meet, which drew 12 boys and 11 girls teams to the Pine Grove Junior High School course, all of them eager to get the 2014 campaign underway.
In the girls meet, Jamesville-DeWitt finished third, with 89 points, just behind Skaneateles (87 points) for the runner-up spot as Section V power Fairport won with 38 points. The Lakers’ Kaitlyn Neal won the individual race in 19 minutes, 31.6 seconds, beating Chittenango’s Anna Galbraith (19:38.4) for the top spot.
Chasing Neal and Galbraith, J-D’s Hannah Butler made her way to third place in 19:47.9, while ESM’s Natalie Marra had an impressive showing, making her way to fourth place in 20:30.3.
But only one other Spartan, Cindy Brownson, cracked the top 20, getting to 17th place in 21:53.6, while J-D had far more depth on its roster, starting with Samantha Jaffe, who was 14th in 21:49.3.
Alexandra Street was 25th (23:16.1), two spots ahead of Kim Walsh (23:33.9), while Emily Pomeroy was 31st in 23:49.6, just behind the Spartans’ Megan Vandewarker (23:46.6) in 30th place. Kelsey Kissane was 38th (24:28.1) as ESM’s Kayla Penoyer (26:07.8) and Sarah Tingley (26:26.9) followed.
J-D did not contest the boys race at ESM, where the host Spartans, with 181 points, earned seventh place out of 12, with Brighton (15 points), another Section V school, winning the top spot and featuring individual champion Drew Schmitt, who won in 17:06.4.
Further back, Matt Young led ESM’s effort, taking 18th place in 18:33.4, just ahead of teammate Jared Henry, who was 19th in 18:38.1. Joe Rosaschi went 20:20.4 to finish 40th, with Jacob Perrotta (20:56.7) and Matt Thompson (22:38.3) rounding out the scoring column.
