Cross country teams from Marcellus, Jordan-Elbridge and West Genesee were all together as part of Saturday’s Baldwinsville Invitational, and each of them played a big role of some kind.
For the boys Mustangs, no. 5 in the state Class C rankings, it was a dominant effort as it beat 23 other entrants for the Small School division team title. Marcellus had 68 points, well clear of runner-up Hannibal (178 points) as J-E, with 191 points, slid into fifth place.
Patrick McGuane led the Mustangs as he finished in 15 minutes, 54.9 seconds and got third place behind East Rochester’s Dawson Bathgate (15:10.1) and LaFayette’s Connor Oakman (15:26.1).
Joe Riccardi got to fifth place, in a time of 16:27.3, while Ethan Mosure gained ninth place in 16:34.1. Michael Brown finished 26th in 17:01.6 as Sean Raymond, four spots behind in 30th place (17:10.1), rounded out the Mustangs’ scoring slate.
Hunter Brunelle led J-E’s efforts, getting to 16th place in 16:46.4. Ethan Kinney was 32nd, in 17:12.6, just ahead of Jared Alpha (17:13.7) in 33rd place. Hugh Schader (17:36.3) just missed the top 50 in a field of nearly 200 runners as Brendan Bourque (17:49.3) was further back. Solvay’s Colton Francemone put up a time of 18:02.7 to lead his side.
West Genesee showed some strength, too, earning fifth place in the Large School division at B’ville by earning 158 points, though Fayetteville-Manlius (51 points) easily prevailed.
David Leff challenged for the top spot, only to settle for fourth place in 15:15.4. Ryan Dunning was 32nd, in 16:30.5, with Sean O’Brien 34th in 16:32.6 and Hunter Buza 36th in 16:33.4. Sean Byrnes finished in 16:50.2 and earned 52nd place.
For the girls teams at Baldwinsville, the highlight came from seeing J-E’s Abby Gugel win the Small School race, her time of 17:51.5 enough to fend off Cazenovia’s Meggie Hart (18:00.2) and prevail.
J-E also beat out Marcellus, 150 points to 164, for fourth place in the Small School boys division, helped out by Gugel and Theresa Dristle, who finished seventh in 19:13.6, along with Mary Dristle and her 12th-place time of 19:54.1. Maggie DeJohn (22:12.8) was further back.
Caroline Carlic, the Mustangs’ top runner, finished 14th with a time of 20:14.9. Lillian Cushman was 26th in 20:38.7, while Schuyler Stuart was 44th in 21:09.1, five spots ahead of Crystal Silliman (21:27.9). Solvay’s Jordyn Willsey led her side by finishing 45th in 21:14.4.
Carly Benson pushed West Genesee’s girls to a fourth-place finish (137 points) in the Large Schools division at B’ville, posting a time of 17:14.3 which beat everyone except Fayetteville-Manlius’ Kaitlyn Neal (the one-time Skaneateles star), who won in 16:48.6.
Maria Matkoski made it to 15th place in 18:54.4, while Sarah Ferranti was 24th in 19:21.2. Kendall Dombroske got 43rd place in 20:16.2 and Megan Farmer posted 20:46.8.
