Now the serious business begins for the Fayetteville-Manlius cross country teams, with local honors just the first hurdle cleared and plenty of glory, at the state and national level, still waiting to be attained.
First, though, the Hornets had to take care of matters during Saturday’s Section III Class A championship meet at Vernon-Verona-Sherrill, sweeping to the boys and girls team titles and getting the top individual boys time of the day from senior Bryce Millar.
The reason the sectional meet proves so important is that just one team from each class advances. Thus, F-M’s boys, who have stayed atop the state rankings all season, had beat state no. 2-ranked Liverpool for the fifth time in head-to-head competition.
With the quartet of Millar, Peter Ryan, Kyle Barber and Adam Hunt in full gear, the Hornets did so, picking up 24 points to the Warriors’ 45, the pair leaving the other Class A sides far behind.
As the state’s top-ranked Class A individual, Millar faced a serious challenge from Liverpool’s Ben Petrella, who did his best to keep Millar in sight over the 3.1-mile VVS course on a cold, windy afternoon.
Still, it was Millar crossing the finish line in 15 minutes, 42 seconds, with Petrella settling for the runner-up spot in 15:51.5 and plenty more F-M runners to follow.
Ryan, a junior, closely followed Petrella and finished third in 15:53.2, just 1.7 seconds behind Petrella. Then Millar’s senior classmates, Barber and Hunt, put away the team title as Barber finished fourth in 16:08.4 and Hunt, in 16:09.7, made his way to fifth place.
It was Riley Hughes, finishing 11th in 16:40.8, that rounded out F-M’s scoring column, with Joe Walters taking 13th place in 16:53.2. Jon Abbott was 20th (17:28.3), two spots ahead of Patrick Perry (17:40.7) in 22nd place, with Bryan Geehrer in 25th place (17:48.2) and Jack Boltman (18:01.2) taking 30th.
Just before the boys Hornets ran, it was the F-M girls taking its latest round of sectional honors, pulling away from West Genesee, 21 points to the Wildcats’ 61.
Yet even the deep and talented F-M roster could not keep up with West Genesee’s freshman sensation, Carly Benson, whose winning time of 18:28.5 was the best in any of the four girls sectional races.
Samantha Levy emerged as the Hornets’ pace-setter on this day, the junior going 18 minutes, 50.2 seconds as F-M’s six fastest runners all landed in the top eight.
Sophia Ryan, in 19:05.8, made it to third place, well clear of Olivia Ryan, who finished fourth in 19:25.7. Jenna Farrell had a fifth-place time of 19:34.3 as Annika Avery maintained a modest pace and gained seventh place in 19:47.9. Jessica Howe finished eighth in 19:58.3.
Reilly Madsen led F-M’s next pack, making her way to 11th place in 20:06.6. Mackenzie Pierie was right behind her, earning 12th place in 20:10.1, with Megan Menz getting to 15th place in 20:26.6 and Katie Peden taking 18th place in 20:58.9.
Now both of F-M’s teams will make their way north, and east, to SUNY-Canton, where this year’s New York State Public High School Athletic Association championship meet will take place on Saturday. The girls Class A race is set for 9:30 a.m., with the boys starting at 11:25 a.m.
