Now it was time for serious competition, and the Cazenovia girls cross country team, with a fresh young face named Claire Rowles at the forefront, was ready for it.
The Lakers ventured to Saturday’s Vernon-Verona-Sherrill Invitational, testing out the course that will host the Section III championships early in November, and earned a third-place finish in its 10-team division.
During Varsity Race 4, Cazenovia had 93 points, well off the winning pace set by West Genesee, who won with 36 points. Another traditional power, Beaver River, was third with 64 points.
Rowles, just an eighth-grader, was, by far, the fastest girl in her class at this large (nearly 500 runners in four races) meet. With a time of 19 minutes, 48.7 seconds, Rowles finished third, just behind West Genesee’s 1-2 tandem of Carly Benson (18:54.0) and Grace Craig (19:48.7).
Helping out Rowles, junior Mya Walters made her way to 14th place in 21:39.8, while freshman Meggie Hart got to 23rd place in 22:36.6. Another junior, Adrien Owens, earned 31st place in 23:28.4, with Caitlan Clonan (23:29.6), Katie Robbins (23:41.0) and Alexa Tillman (23:58.2) all right behind her with top-40 efforts.
Cazenovia’s boys cross country team was ninth out of 12 teams in Race 4 with 231 points. Junior Kevin Ridings fared best, earning 25th place in 18:46.2, while Brendan Coffey took 50th place in 20:02.7. James McPherson (20:29.8), Nick Barna (20:41.2) and Cooper Holgate (21:33.7) rounded out the Lakers’ scoring column.
Moving to Race 3, Chittenango’s boys cross country team had a strong showing, rising to third place out of 15 teams by earning 89 points. A tight race at the top saw Cicero-North Syracuse (54 points) edge Carthage (55 points) to prevail.
Individually, senior Isaac Czarnecki led the Bears, getting to 10th place in a clocking of 18:01.5. Right behind him, Mike Capeling earned 14th place in 18:16 flat, with Robbie Howard (18:21.7) and Karl Farber (18:22.0) 16th and 17th, respectively. Willy Blanding got 33rd place in 19:06.9.
On the other hand, Chittenango’s girls team only got to 11th place in Race 3. Not having Anna Galbraith hurt, but Sarah Moon still had a 10th-place time of 21:35.6, well ahead of teammate Hayley Foran, who was 41st in 23:45.2. Devin Gordon (25.44.1), Bailey Price (26:19.4), Alyssa Crystal (27:01.3) and the rest of the Bears were further back.
