All through the 2014 season, the Liverpool boys cross country team held the no. 2 state Class A ranking and a national top 10 ranking, honors that, in most places, would lead to a slew of meet victories and championship honors.
But in Section III, that just meant looking up at Fayetteville-Manlius, and no matter how many times the Warriors tried to upend the Hornets, it always ended the same.
During last Saturday’s sectional Class A championship meet at Vernon-Verona-Sherrill, Liverpool again proved fast and deep, picking up 45 points to pull away from most of the field – and again had to settle for the runner-up spot to F-M, who prevailed with 24 points.
If it provided any consolation, three Warriors – Ben Petrella, Connor Buck and Dylan McCarthy – qualified for this Saturday’s state meet at SUNY-Canton.
Petrella, in fact, would blaze his way to second place in 15 minutes, 51.5 seconds, beating all of the Hornets’ stars except for Bryce Millar, who won in 15:42 flat. Those were the two fastest times of the day.
F-M’s trio of Peter Ryan, Kyle Barber and Adam Hunt took the next three spots, with Utica Proctor’s Zackaria Adam sixth and West Genesee’s Will Randall seventh. That left it to Buck, who finished eighth in 16:26.4, and McCarthy, who took ninth place in 16:29.8, to grab the remaining spots on the sectional All-Star squad going to the state meet.
Meanwhile, Dan Muldoon made his way to 12th place, in 16:51 flat. Ty Brownlow finished 14th in 16:57.3, with Ryan Comstock (17:02.4) in 15th place. Nick LeClair got to 17th place in 17:13.7 and Stevie Schulz (17:24.5) earned 19th place. Jacob Rowell (18:02.6) and Gabe Albert (18:35.2) followed.
In the 11-team Class A sectional field, Cicero-North Syracuse, with 175 points, settled for fifth place, with Jared George leading the way as he recorded a 34th-place time of 18:12.1.
Jake Dehm, in 18:22 flat, took 42nd place, while Joe Tricarico finished 47th in 18:36.9. R.J. Wagner gained 52nd place in 18:52.9, one spot ahead of Sam Barber (18:51.3) as Steven Cooley (19:07.2), Jason Hughes (19:24.1), Allen Garnes (19:39.2) and Nick Gazzillo (20:03.4) followed.
During the girls sectional Class A cross country meet at VVS, Liverpool picked up 75 points and took third place, just behind West Genesee (61 points) as F-M (21 points) won here, too, and C-NS (132 points) got sixth place.
Amid the Hornets’ stream of runners, Liverpool senior Abby McNamara earned a spot in the state meet. She finished 10th in 20:00.5, but that was fourth among runners outside of F-M, so she joins WG teammates Carly Benson and Grace Craig, plus Marian Draper (Rome Free Academy) and Maizy Ludden (Baldwinsville), in advancing to Canton.
Also for the Warriors, Maia Henry finished 16th, in 20:38.1, exactly eight seconds ahead of Juliana Basla (20:46.1) in 17th place. Jillian Stagnitta got to 20th place in 21:08.6 and Morgan Chewning-Kulick, in 22nd place (21:11.6), rounded out the scoring column.
On the C-NS side, freshman Annina Marullo had the best showing, getting to 21st place in 21:09.5 to finish in between Stagnitta and Chewning-Kulick. Madison Gross was 27th, in 21:39.7, one spot ahead of Jilliann Norris (21:42.1), with Taylor Parry 31st in 21:55.5 and Lexi Pirro (22:29.4) in 41st place.
