Though not in the state Class A rankings, the Liverpool girls cross country team has enough quality to it that it can match, or top, just about any opponent in the CNY Counties League.
The Warriors proved this by turning back Baldwinsville 23-32 in last Wednesday’s neighborhood showdown at Longbranch Park, part of a three-way meet where Liverpool also swept Syracuse West 15-49 and easily won both of the boys races.
Running away from the field on a course made muddy by the previous day’s heavy rains, Juliana Basla finished in 19 minutes, five seconds, nearly a minute ahead of teammate Morgan-Chewing-Kulick, who was second in exactly 20 minutes, beating out B’ville’s Justus Holden-Betts (20:07) for that runner-up spot.
Jillian Stagnitta made her way to fifth place, in 20:44, and Liverpool sealed it by having Vanessa Eberhard earn seventh place in 21:11 and Natalie Kurz earn eighth place in 21:12, both of them ahead of the Bees’ fourth and fifth runners, Leah Carpenter (21:14) and Nadine Dickter (21;35).
In that boys race, Liverpool beat Syracuse West 18-45 and B’ville 15-49, watching as Ben Petrella blazed to a time of 15:44, more than a minute ahead of Ty Brownlow, who was second in 16:53.
Then, after Syracuse West’s Soloman Lawrence finished in 16:56, a stream of Warriors got to the line together. Gabe Albert and Stephen Schultz both posted 16:59, with Terrell Coleman sixth in 17:01. Ryan Comstock was seventh, in 17:07, as Dan Hunt and Collin Gwilt each ran to equal times of 17:09.
Liverpool went from there to the massive McQuaid Invitational, held Saturday at Rochester’s Genesee Valley Park, and the boys Warriors found itself tied with East Aurora in the Seeded Varsity AAA race, each of them scoring 65 points.
But it was Petrella winning that individual AAA race, and his time of 14:32.9 topped each of the 1,700-plus runners that day except Carthage’s Noah Affolder (14:14.9). while Brownlow was third in this race in 15:08.3. Schulz was 10th, in 15:15.7, with Coleman 15th in 15:20.9 and Comstock 36th in 15:46.9. Gwilt (16:13.9) and Albert (16:18.3) were further back.
In the girls Varsity AAA race, Liverpool was 14th out of 17 teams, finding it tough to keep up with the day’s strongest field, though Basla still took 11th place in 17:45.8. Chewning-Kulick, in 18:35.8, finished 37th, with Eberhard (19:05.0), Stagnitta (19:24.2), Windsor Ardner (20:15.4), Kurz (20:25.1) and Mallory Woytowicz (21:04.3) trailing.
Cicero-North Syracuse, meanwhile, took the measure of mighty Fayetteville-Manlius last Wednesday and could not break through on either side against the Hornets, though both would earn victories over Syracuse East in the three-way meet at Oneida Shores to secure a split.
Andrew Bearkland would emerge victorious in the boys race, speeding to a time of 16 minutes, 49.9 seconds, to help the Northstars beat Syracuse East 18-45, even though the Northstars lost, 22-39, to the Hornets.
Other than Bearkland and Joe Tricarico, who finished fifth in 17:33.2, F-M controlled the race, with its top trio of Peter Ryan (17:26.7), Patrick Perry (17:26.9) and Joe Walters (17:27.2) sticking together and four others reaching the top 10 ahead of the Northstars’ third, fourth and fifth runners.
In the girls race, F-M’s nine-time national championship side prevailed 15-50, with C-NS, the state’s no. 15-ranked Class A team, unable to place any of its runners in the top 10 against the Hornets, who saw Phoebe White (19:41.3), Megan Menz (19:47.4) and Reilly M adsen (19:49.0) break the 20-minute mark.
Both C-NS and Liverpool take their teams to New York City this Saturday for the annual Manhattan Invitational at Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx.
