Area cross country teams would go from league meets in the middle of the week to a massive gathering in New York City, as several of them would compete in the Manhattan Invitational at Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx.
Before that, though, West Genesee had quite the experience last Wednesday afternoon, meeting the top two-ranked boys teams in the state, Liverpool and Fayetteville-Manlius, at the same time in the same race.
That boys event saw F-M prevail, 24-31, over Liverpool, with the Hornets topping the Wildcats 16-47 and the Warriors winning by an 18-45 margin.
David Leff provided WG’s lone interruption in the duel, as he made his way to sixth place in a time of 16 minutes, 16 seconds. Ben Petrella won for Liverpool in 15:34, with F-M sweeping the rest of the top five to pull ahead for good.
West Genesee also had a part in the girls race, where it lost a narrow 27-28 decision to Liverpool and could not keep up with nine-time national champion F-M 19-44. Carly Benson, battling for individual honors, posted a time of 18:36 that beat the entire Hornets crowd except Rebecca Walters, who won in 18:26. No other Wildcats runner finished in the top 10.
Benson went from there to a third-place finish in the Varsity B race during Saturday’s Manhattan Invitational at Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx.
In a time of 14:52.8, Benson only trailed Abby Green (Walter Johnson), who won in 14:45 flat, and Abbe Goldstein (Germantown Academy), who finished second in 14:52.8. Sara Ferranti was 32nd, in 16:23.6, with Maria Matkoski 38th in 16:31.7 and Kendall Dombroske (16:53.1) in 54th place.
Jordan-Elbridge’s Abby Gugel was 33rd in the featured Eastern States Invitational in 15:24.7, with Theresa Dristle (16:20.7) her closest pursuer on the Eagles’ side.
In the Varsity E race, Westhill-Bishop Ludden’s Genny Corcoran made her way to eighth place in 15:32.2 and Alaina Kenny was 13th in 15:55.8, with Haylei Coolican 38th in 16:43.8, just ahead of Maura McAnaney (16:51.8) in 42nd place. Annibel Coolican was 69th, in 17:33.9, just two spots ahead of Kendra MacCaull (17:35.2), with Olivia Daigneau (18:05.5) behind them.
Before that, Westhill- Ludden met up with Solvay last Tuesday afternoon, and the Warriors swept both sides of that meet by equal 18-49 margins.
Corcoran won the girls race for Westhill-Ludden (no. 16 in the state Class B rankings), posting a time of 19 minutes, 46 seconds, well clear of Alaina Kenny, who was second in 2012 as the Bearcats’ best runner, Jordyn Willsey, grabbed third place in 20:18.
From there, though, the Warriors occupied the rest of the top 10. McAnaney was fourth, in 20:44, comfortably ahead of Annibel Coolican (21:03) in fifth place. MacCaull, in 21:08, edged out Haylei Coolican (21:09) for sixth place as Daigneau (21:21), Lisa Bogardus (21:33) and Noelle Coolican (21:44) followed.
Solvay had more of a presence in the boys race, even though the points turned out the same. Again, Westhill-Ludden went 1-2, with Alex Ladstatter prevailing in 17:23 and Jack Mannion close behind in 17:33. Again, the Bearcats had the third-place finisher, Colton Francemone, who finished in 17:43 to edge out the Warriors’ Cade VanOrman (17:44) for that spot.
Getting away, the Warriors saw Jake Suddaby (18:13), Jack Savage (18:31) and Cody Ellis (18:56) take the fifth through seventh spots. Solvay did see Jonah Wheeler finish eighth in 19:15 and John Brusa get 10th place in 19:19, with Westhill-Ludden’s Brendan Rewakowski (19:16) in between them.
Marcellus met Skaneateles last Tuesday afternoon, winning 19-54 on the boys side as Joe Riccardi won in a time of 17:27.10, edging out the Lakers’ Kai Soderberg (17:30.25) for individual honors. Ethan Mosure, third in 17:34.4, led a pack that included Mike Brown (17:43.07), Andrew Marsh (17:46.25), Patrick McGuane (18:00.91), Sean Raymond (18:01.47), Riley Burns (18:13.3) and Grayson Hoag (18:24.5).
In the girls race, Marcellus’ Schuyler Stuart, in a time of 22:28.83, finished second behind the Lakers’ Julia Willcox (20:55.36). Morgan Gould was fourth, in 23:04.03, with Mary-Catherine Coon sixth in 24:33.92, leading a Mustangs group that included Brittany LeClair (26:12.15), Sarah Stowell (29:51.33) and Maija Lemponen.
Then Marcellus went to the Manhattan Invitational, where in Boys Race G McGuane got 27th place in 13:42.9. Riccardi finished 58th, in 14:04.1, with Mosure 74th in 14:12.7 ahead of Brown (14:21.9), Raymond (14:24.1) and Matt Strempel (14:44.0).
West Genesee and Westhill-Ludden was in Varsity Race D, where Leff made his way to fourth place in 13:00.6 and Remillard roared to 11th place in 13:30.5, each of them less than a minute behind the winner, Jackson’s Ryan Rafferty (12:48.9). The Wildcats also had Ryan Dunning in 60th place (14:10.1), as he and Vinny Gettino (14:31.1) finished ahead of Warriors’ runners such as Washburn (14:35.5) and Ladstatter (14:45.4).
