Given that they are neighbors, it only figured that the Skaneateles and Jordan-Elbridge cross country teams opened their OHSL Liberty division schedules against each other last Wednesday afternoon.
And it went the way of the state Class C no. 5-ranked Lakers on the girls side, who beat the Eagles 19-42 with a sweep of the top three positions.
Julia Willcox led the sweep, covering the J-E course in 19 minutes, 35 seconds, just ahead of Kaitlyn Neal, who breezed into second place in 19:37, and Liz Dwyer, who was third in 19:59.
After J-E’s Mary Dristle (20:58) and Theresa Dristle (21:56) took the next two spots, the Lakers’ depth began to show. Jillian Van Leer claimed sixth place in 22:21, with Makena Gorman seventh in 22:23. Natalie Condon made her way to eighth place in 22:26 and Zoe Osborn (22:43) got ninth place.
In the boys meet, Skaneateles took a 22-33 defeat to Jordan-Elbridge, with Cooper Watt nearly grabbing the individual title, as his time of 16:54 beat everyone except the Eagles’ Nathan Hollis, who won in 16:38.
Chris Niebuhr, who had posted a personal-best 18:52.6 to finish tops among Skaneateles individuals in the East Syracuse-Minoa Inviational on Sept. 13, edged out J-E’s Nathan Kinney for fourth place, though both finished in 17:21.
All told, the Eagles got five of the top seven spots before Kai Soderberg took eighth place in 17:59. Steve Ciaccio and Dominic Grasso both finished in 18:27.
Then the Skaneateles boys ventured to Saturday’s Baldwinsville Invitational, and while the girls triumphed (see separated story), these Lakers would settle for a 15th-place finish among 34 in the Small School division with 407 points. Chittenango, with 102 points, earned the top spot.
Continuing to run well, Niebuhr, in a field of nearly 240, made his way to 27th place in 17 minutes, 25.3 seconds, clear of his Skaneateles teammates, including Watt, who finished 52nd in 17:49.7. Soderberg (18:09.8) finished 72nd, with Grasso posting a time of 18:58 flat and Alex Vanriper finishing in exactly 19:19.
