In a remarkable bit of scheduling, the Liverpool boys cross country team found itself squaring off with Fayetteville-Manlius three times in eight days.

First, there was the head-to-head at F-M on Oct. 7, where the Hornets prevailed. Then there was the Manhattan Invitational on Oct. 10, when the Warriors finished fourth in the featured Eastern States Championship, one spot ahead of F-M.

Then they faced each other for a third time in Wednesday’s CNY Counties League championship race at Baldwinsville, with Liverpool still ahead of F-M atop the state Class A rankings – but it was the Hornets, utilizing its depth, to get ahead of the Warrriors, 30 points to 43, with host B’ville (79 points) far back in third place and Cicero-North Syracuse fourth with 114 points.

Again, Liverpool’s Ben Petrella proved the fastest runner in the field, grabbing the individual league title in 14 minutes, 51.3 seconds, topping F-M’s Peter Ryan (15:05.2) and the rest of the field.

But Ryan, Patrick Perry (15:05.7) and Bryan Geehrer (15:14.4) all beat Ty Brownlow, who was sixth in 15:25.5, and Stevie Schulz, who was seventh in 15:30.2.

Then two other Hornets, Ben Otis (15:34.8) and Joe Walters (15:42.5), finished ahead of Liverpool’s Ryan Comstock in 13th place (15:45.3), putting it out of the Warriors’ reach, though Terrell Coleman was 15th (16:07.1) as Gabe Albert (16:13.2) and Dan Hunt (16:19.4) were 19th and 20th, respectively.

Meanwhile, C-NS saw Andrew Bearkland make his way to sixth place in a clocking of 15:17.6, beating every Liverpool runner except Petrella. But Bearkland had far less help as Joe Tricarico took 23rd place in 16:25.5 and Nate Poirier (16:27.3) finished 25th. Sam Barber was 30th in 16:35 flat and Brandon Martin took 35th place in 16:39.4.

Meanwhile, in the girls CNYCL race, Liverpool, who had sneaked into the state Class A rankings at the no. 24 spot, gained third place in the eight-team field with 81 points, just behind runner-up West Genesee (71 points), with F-M (16 points) out of reach and C-NS, with 114 points, settling for fifth place.

With the Hornets’ Kaitlyn Neal prevailing in a fast 16:43.9 and F-M runners grabbing nine of the top 10 spots, the Warriors’ Juliana Basla was right behind them, getting to 11th place in 18:08.2, while Morgan Chewning-Kulick finished 16th in 18:49.4.

Vanessa Eberhard made her way to 22nd place in 19:13.7, while Jillian Stagnitta finished 27th in 19:36.8. Natalie Kurz had a 33rd-place finish in 20:08.8 as Windsor Ardner was 46th in 20:37.7, five spots ahead of Mallory Woytowicz (20:47.2).

C-NS saw Sarah Davis lead its effort, getting to 23rd place in 19:14.5, two spots ahead of Annina Marullo (19:27.1) in 25th place. Emily Dembrowski got to 28th place in 19:39.5, with Juila Rupp taking 36th place in 20:18 flat and Molly Camire (20:31.7) in 44th, ahead of Ashley Irvine (20:41.5) in 48th place and Tori Pirro (20:50.8) in 53rd place.