At the start of its OHSL Liberty division schedule, the Cazenovia cross country teams both got to face Christian Brothers Academy Wednesday afternoon and earned a sweep of those races at the Sean Googin Sports Complex.
In the girls race, the Lakers beat the Brothers 15-51, getting another rousing effort from eighth-grade Clara Rowles, who roared to victory in 19 minutes, 24 seconds, well clear of Meggie Hart, who finished second in 21:05.
Mya Walters got to third place, in 21:35, while Katie Robbins (23:07) and Adrien Owens (23:43) also earned top-five finishes. Caitlin Clonan, taking sixth place in 23:58, led the next group as Alexa Tillman (24:06), Whitney Dennison (24:21), Kaitlin Rossiter (24:45) and Madalynne Phillips (25:52) followed.
Cazenovia’s boys side handled CBA by a similar 15-50 margin, with Sean Satchwell claiming the individual race in 18:12 to beat out Kevin Ridings (18:18) as they pulled away from the rest of the runners.
Leading the next pack, Brendan Coffey took third place, in 19:44, with Matt Mistur (19:55) getting to fourth place. Then the next Lakers’ pack included Nick Barna (20:38) in seventh place, just ahead of Cooper Holgate (20:47), Ian Marshall (20:48) and Harrison McDonough (20:50).
Chittenango’s girls cross country teams were in a close three-way meet against Cortland and Homer on the girls side, but the Bears managed to beat the Trojans 26-29 and the Purple Tigers 25-32.
Anna Galbraith pulled away in the individual race, winning it in 20:36, well clear of Cortland’s Hayley Tasselmeyer (21:10) in second place and Homer’s Arielle Moheimani (21:57), who was third.
Sarah Moon made her way to fourth place, in 22:03, with Hayley Foran getting eighth place in 22:58 and Kaitlyn Swain (24:55) also reaching the top 10 to give Chittenango a cushion it would need.
In the three-way boys meet, Chittenango, no. 16 in the state Class B rankings, dominated both Homer (19-40) and Cortland (15-44), mainly by sweeping five of the top six positions.
Isaac Czarnecki won the race, in 18:07, with Homer’s Evan Ulrich (18:28) second, but then the rest of the Bears took over. Robbie Howard took third place in 18:31, while Karl Farber was fourth in 18:39. Willy Blanding, in 19:01, edged past Mike Capeling 19:02) for a fifth-place finish.
Then the Bears made a bigger statement on Saturday, beating 33 other teams to win the Small School division of the Baldwinsville Invitational, its 102 points well clear of second-place Marcellus, who had 140 points. Cazenovia was 10th with 315 points.
Czarnecki led Chittenango’s pack, getting to eighth place in 16:33.4. Capeling got to 12th place in 16:49.1, just ahead of Howard (16:50.7) in 15th place. Farber, in 18th place (16:54.1), gave the Bears a fourth top-20 finishers as Blanding was 49th in 17:48.2 to close out the scoring column.
On Cazenovia’s side, Ridings led the group as he got to 14th place in 16:50.3, one spot ahead of Howard. Satchwell made it to 34th place in 17:35.6, with Coffey in 53rd (17:51.2), beating out Mistur (18:41.0) and Barna (18:52.0), among others.
But in the girls race at Baldwinsville, Cazenovia did quite well, rising all the way to second place in 113 points, trailing only its fellow Lakers from Skaneateles, who won with 113 points as Chittenango (230 points) fit into eighth place.
Rowles, in a field of nearly 200 runners, got to second place in 18:07.3, which was also the second-fastest time of the day behind Skaneateles star Kaitlyn Neal’s winning 17:52.3, with Galbraith taking fourth place in 18:38 flat for the Bears.
Helping out Rowles, Hart made it to 10th place in 19:53.5, with Walters gaining 26th place (20:45.7) and Robbins taking 32nd place in 21:15.2. Owens (21:58.5) and Cloonan (22:05.6) finished close together in front of Tillman (22:15.4). Chittenango had Moon in 19th place in 20:17.1, far ahead of Swain’s 22:14.7, with Hayley Foran posting 22:32 flat and Brooke Busa getting a time of 23:15.1.
