Just running by themselves, the members of the Jamesville-DeWitt girls cross country team are solid performers, but don’t evoke fear in the minds of competitors.
Put together, though, the Red Rams are a force – and now are proud owners of the Section III Class B championship, earned last Saturday amid cold, windy conditions at Vernon-Verona-Sherrill.
All seven of J-D’s top runners finished within the top 30, leading to a total of 53 points that turned away 13 challengers, the closest of them from New Hartford, who finished second with 76 points. East Syracuse-Minoa took fifth place with 165 points.
Sophomore Hannah Butler led the Rams’ charge, making her way to fourth place in 20 minutes, 19.7 seconds, with senior Rachel Fairbanks earning ninth place in 21:31.8.
Ninth-grader Megan Brown closely followed, getting to 12th place in 21:39 flat, just as senior Samantha Jaffe made her way to 15th place in exactly 21:50. Junior Kim Walsh clinched the sectional title when she crossed the line in 22:18.5 and finished 21st.
Still, more J-D runners followed. Freshman Ayla Erwin put together a 23rd-place finish in 22:23.7. Sophomore Alexandra Street had a strong race, too, getting to 25th place in 22:35 flat, and Emily Pomeroy took 30th place in 22:53.2.
J-D will compete this Saturday in the state Class B championship meet at SUNY-Canton, joined by a Section III All-Star quintet that includes ESM junior Natalie Marra.
Battling for sectional honors, Marra made her way to third place in 19 minutes, 51.9 seconds, not far behind the winner, Whiteboro’s Justyna Wilkinson (19:40.6) and the runner-up, Chittenango’s Anna Galbraith (19:49.2). Marra, Wilkinson, Galbraith, Hayley Tasselmyer (Cortland) and Juliet Hull (New Hartford) compose the All-Star squad.
The Spartans’ Cindy Brownson just missed joining that team by two spots, settling for eighth place in 21:16.8. Elsewhere for ESM, Megan Vandewarker finished 36th, in 23:08.5, while Makalia White (24:48.3) and Olivia Ravera (24:50.2) finished further back.
Meanwhile, in the boys sectional Class B meet, J-D finished seventh, with 188 points, and ESM took 10th place with 284 points, each of them well back of Carthage (72 points) and Whitesboro (79 points) at the top, but Red Rams sophomore Patrick Dye and Spartans junior Matt Young still made it to the state meet, as did CBA’s Dominic Morganti in the Class C race.
Dye roared his way to third place in a time of 16:53.6, just behind Carthage’s Sam Affolder (16:47.7) as Sam’s older brother, Noah Affolder, ran away with the individual title in 16:06.3.
Behind them, Young had to finish seventh to get into the state meet – and did so by a healthy margin, his time of 17:33.3 a full 13 seconds better than Chittenango’s Mike Capeling (17:46.3). Young, Dye, Jake Zedack (Mexico), Patrick McGuane (Marcellus) and Nick Bandel (Central Valley) make up the sectional All-Star team.
Elsewhere for J-D, Brady Wing had the best finish, getting to 14th place in 17:58.8, while Matt Salbert was 35th in 18:52 splat. ESM’s Jared Henry, who finished 25th in 18:24.0, was the only other Spartans runner in the top 50.
As for Morganti, even though CBA did not even have a full team for the sectional Class C race, the talented sophomore still pushed his way to a time of 17:20.5 and a second-place finish, beating everyone except Hannibal’s Jason McFarland, who won in 16:48 flat.
Morganti, McFarland, Kevin Ridings (Cazenovia), Bryce Zayachek (Holland Patent) and Garnet Remillard (Westhill-Bishop Ludden) will go to the state meet. CBA’s Lucy Person finished 16th in the girls sectional Class C race in 22:03.4.
