Led again by the duo of Meggie Hart and Clara Rowles, the Cazenovia girls cross country rose all the way to second place in Wednesday’s Onondaga High School League Liberty division championship meet at Long Branch Park in Liverpool.
With a total of 60 points, the Lakers topped everyone in the seven-team field except Westhill-Bishop Ludden, who prevailed with 43 points by having six of its runners finish within the top 21 of the individual standings.
By contrast, Cazenovia only had four of them – but that included Hart and Rowles. In a time of 18 minutes, 27.2 seconds, Hart finished second in the individual race to Jordan-Elbridge’s Abby Gugel, who won in 18:11 flat, while Rowles made her way to fourth place in 18:49.9.
Mya Walters was next for Cazenovia, gaining 15th place in 20:53.7, while Adrien Owens took 20th place in 21:03.7. Jackie Gamlen, taking 25th place in 21:15 flat, rounded out the scoring column as Whitney Denison (21:52.6) held off Caitlin Clonan (21:58.7) for 32nd place. Alexa Tillman was 38th (22:41.7) and Maddie Phillips (23:14.6) was 43rd.
It was more difficult for Cazenovia’s boys team, who was seventh out of nine teams in its OHSL Liberty meet with 149 points, with Marcellus (47 points) in the top spot.
Still, the Lakers’ Jon Maracek made his way to ninth place in a clocking of 16:54.8, though far off Hannibal’s Jason McFarland and his winning time of 15:31.4. Tony Koppers finished 35th, in exactly 18 minutes, while Ian Marshall was 43rd in 18:15 flat, just ahead of James McPherson (18:16.4) in 46th and Jacob Wells (18:18.0) in 47th place. Jack Gabor was 51st in 18:22.1.
On that same Wednesday afternoon, Chittenango’s cross country teams made the short trip to East Syracuse Minoa’s Pine Grove course for the OHSL Freedom division championship.
Led by Mike Capeling, the Bears finished fourth out of 10 boys teams with 106 points as Central Square (74 points) took the top prize. Capeling threatened for the individual title and finished in 17 minutes, 4.7 seconds, trailing only ESM’s Matt Young, who won in 16:44.3 on his home course.
Phillip Abell made his way to 14th place, in 18:21.2, while the next three Chittenango runners – Willy Blanding, Caleb Seale and Grant Czarnecki – finished together, with Blanding 29th in 18:56.1, ahead of Seale (19:04 flat) in 30th place and Czarnecki (19:07.4) in 31st place. Lucas Spiridilozzi was 35th in 19:15.3.
In the girls OHSL freedom meet, Chittenango took fifth place in a seven-team field with 122 points, with Jamesville-DeWitt (29 points) pulling away from the field for team honors.
McKenzie Dombroski, posting a time of 22:00.3, took 14th place as another ESM runner, Natalie Marra, prevailed on her home course in 19:10.5. Devin Gordon got to 27th place in 23:05 flat, with Hayley Foran 34th in 23:28.2. Kaitlyn Swain was 42nd, in 23:47.1, with Sydney Bennett (23:52.3), Eryn Thompson (24:04.5), Maggie Lowe (24;25.9), Bailey Price (24:27.8) and Alyssa Crystal (24:36.5) close behind.
