With both state and regional titles locked away, both of the Fayetteville-Manlius cross country teams now get set to go back to Portland, Oregon, each of them bent on earning a national championship.
The final hurdle to Saturday’s Nike Cross Nationals in Portland, Oregon, was cleared Saturday at the Nike New York Regionals at Bowdoin Park in Wappingers Falls, where the Hornets, running under the Manlius XC Club banner, claimed both the boys and girls team titles, with Bryce Millar again the top individual boys runner.
On the boys side, F-M, the New York State Public High School Athletic Association champions, met face-to-face with St. Anthony’s, who won the Federation race at Bowdoin Park two weeks earlier. Liverpool was back, too, to offer the Hornets another stern challenger.
But with Millar out front, and steady efforts from his teammates, F-M prevailed again, 72 points to the 88 points put up by St. Anthony’s Assisi Club side, with Liverpool, running as the Warriors, getting third place with 96 points and earning a wild-card berth in Portland.
This was by no means a Millar runaway, as he was pushed hard by Marco Pompilj (Riverside Runners) and Keith Baird (Mount XC), but after 5,000 meters it was Millar, in 15 minutes, 48.8 seconds, taking the top spot as Pompilj (15:54.6) edged Baird (15:54.7) for second place.
Kyle Barber fared best among the Hornets’ supporting cast, taking 12th place among team runners, and 15th overall, in 16:22 flat, just two spots ahead of Peter Ryan, who was 14th in the team race (17th overall) in 16:23.3.
Adam Hunt got to 20th among team runners, and 23rd overall, with his clocking of 16:36.9, while Riley Hughes clinched the team title by posting 16:47 flat for 25th place in the team event (33rd overall). Joe Walter finished in 16:49.7 for 37th place (33rd team), while Jon Abbott finished in 17:26.4. Jamesville-DeWitt’s Patrick Dye got 66th place in 17:20.8, nine spots ahead of Abbott.
It was not as close in the girls New York Regional, where F-M, with all of its top five finishers in the top 20 overall, again pulled away from its Class A state rival, Saratoga Springs (running as Kinetic XC), finishing with 34 points to Saratoga’s 68. Shenendehowa (Legacy Track Club) was third with 102 points, joining F-M and Saratoga as qualifiers for the Nike Nationals.
Individually, senior Olivia Ryan paced the Hornets, making it to fifth place in 18 minutes, 52.8 seconds, not far from the winning time of 18:15.3 posted by Arlington’s Bella Burda as, again, she held off Corning’s Jessica Lawson (18:19.0), just as she had done in the state Class A meet at SUNY-Canton on Nov. 8.
Junior Samantha Levy also cracked the top 10 for F-M, getting to eighth overall (fifth among team runners) with her time of 19:00.8. Freshman Sophia Ryan and Annika Avery were sixth and seventh, respectively, among the team runners, with Ryan 10th overall in 19:06.2 and Avery (19:08.1) getting to 12th place.
It was Jenna Farrell, finishing 19th (12th in the team portion) in a clocking of 19:27.7, clinching the team regional championship for F-M. Jessica Howe made it to 35th place (25th team) in 19:43 flat, while Reilly Madsen was 65th (43rd team), posting 20:22.7.
F-M’s girls now go to Portland, where it won every Nike Cross Nationals from 2006 to 2012, seven in a row overall, before a second-place finish in 2013.
