For a brief moment, the Fayetteville-Manlius boys cross country team was not in its usual spot atop the state Class A rankings, having seen Liverpool displace them following its overall victory at the Oct. 3 McQuaid Invitational in Rochester.
That’s bound to change, though, in the wake of the no. 2-ranked Hornets topping the no. 1-ranked Warriors 24-31 in Wednesday afternoon’s three-way CNY Counties League meet that also included West Genesee, whom F-M defeated by a 16-47 margin.
And that was just one part of a busy day among the local runners. Jamesville-DeWitt and East Syracuse Minoa had their annual OHSL Freedom division showdown, with the girls Red Rams taking a 15-49 victory over the Spartans.
At F-M, the Hornets were getting an up-close look at Liverpool in a preview of the showdown they’re certain to have Nov. 7 during the Section III Class A meet at Vernon-Verona-Sherrill.
It came down to the fact that the Hornets, after Liverpool’s Ben Petrella crossed the finish line in a winning time of 15 minutes, 34 seconds, swept the remaining spots in the top five, and got a bit of help, too.
Peter Ryan grabbed second place in 15:51, edging out Patrick Perry, who was third in 15:52. Bryan Geehrer finished fourth in 16:01.
Then Ben Otis all but sealed the victory when, in a time of 16:13, he held off Liverpool’s second runner, Ty Brownlow (16:15) for fifth place. Also, West Genesee’s David Leff had a seventh-place time of 16:16 that cost the Warriors a few key points.
None of this drama was found in the girls meet for F-M, who turned back Liverpool 18-45 and West Genesee 19-44, earning eight of the top 10 spots in the final order.
Running quite well, Rebecca Walters won in 18:26, comfortably ahead of Wildcats star Carly Benson (18:36) in second place as Reilly Madsen took third place in 18:43.
And after Liverpool’s Juliana Basla finished fourth, in 18:44, the Hornets took over. Megan Menz was fifth, in 19:01, with Christina Berge’ sixth in 19:14. Keita Peden, in 19:23, held off Phoebe White (19:28) for seventh place, followed by Alexis Villalba (19:37) and Palmer Madsen (19:38) in the next two spots.
While all this was going on, J-D was hosting ESM, and the Red Rams swept the top six positions in the girls race ahead of the Spartans’ Natalie Marra, who settled for seventh place in 22:23.
Sophia Vinciguerra had the winning time of 21:54, followed by a wave that included Amelia Gilbert in second place in 22:02, just ahead of Abby Palin (22:03) and Hannah Butler (22:04), with Catherine Keane fifth in 22:06 and Emiliy Shapiro (22:10) in the fifth and sixth spots, respectively.
In all, the Rams got eight of the top nine positions. Alisa Salbert took eighth place, in 22:24, one second behind Marra, while Alexandra Street was ninth (22:25) ahead of ESM’s Megan Vanderwarker (22:50) in 10th place.
Now all of the local powers made their way to Van Cortlandt Park, in the Bronx, to compete in Saturday’s Manhattan Invitational, and again the F-M girls dominated the featured Eastern States Invitational, finishing with 50 points to top 17 challengers, with runner-up Pennsbury (125 points) far back.
None of the seven F-M runners had gone against Liverpool, and their freshness led to another big win. Kaitlyn Neal, in a time of 14:04.6, was second among individuals behind Corning’s Jessica Lawson (13:53.9), who had the day’s fastest time.
But the next four Hornets ran in a close group, led by Claire Walters, who was 10th in 14:37.2 as Palmer Madsen was 11th in 14:45.3, with Sophie Ryan 13th in 14:48 flat and Samantha Levy (14:49.2) in 14th place. Rebecca Walters was 21st, in 15:06.3, with Jenna Farrell 26th in 15:21.3.
F-M’s boys, however, settled for fifth place with 228 points, and Liverpool (209 points) was in front of them, taking fourth place as Downingtown West, with 177 points, won a close battle for the top spot.
Peter Ryan was 20th, in 12:40.1, again far back of Petrella (12:23.8), who was fifth, as Perry finished 29th in 12:49.1, one spot ahead of Geehrer (12:52.6), but behind Brownlow’s 23rd-place effort. Otherwise, Joe Walters posted 13:16 flat for 64th place, with Otis (13:28.2), Jack Boltman (13:47.4) and Brendan Pearl (14:41.0) further back.
ESM had Marra finish fifth in the girls Varsity C race in 15:03.5, not far from Abby Green’s winning time of 14:45 flat. Meanwhlie, the boys Spartans had Matt Young get to eighth place in the Varsity D race in 13:20 flat, with Jared Henry 14th in 13:32.9. No other Spartan was as close, with Nick Berg 79th in 14:18.1, followed by David Rivers (15:53.1), Jacob Perrotta (15:47.6), Nate Castor (15:50.8) and Michael Sanders (16:18.3).
For J-D’s boys, who ran in Varsity E, division, Miles Chandler had the fastest time of 14:47.7, putting him in 95th place, three spots ahead of Sam Glisson (14:48.7). CBA’s Dominic Morganti was 10th in the Varsity G race in a time of 13:20.2.
