Whether it was East Syracuse Minoa getting a clean sweep of the individual titles on its home course or Jamesville-DeWitt dominating the girls team portion, each of these area cross country teams made their mark during last Wednesday’s Onondaga High School League Freedom division championship meet.
In that girls team division, J-D posted 12 of the 32 fastest times and, with 27 points, easily pulled away from runner-up Central Square (59 points), while ESM had to settle for third place with 83 points, despite Natalie Marra’s latest victory in the individual race.
Fresh off her title in the large school division at the Oct. 17 Tully Invitational, Marra needed 19 minutes, 10.5 seconds to pull away from the field and claim the league title.
J-D’s Hannah Butler grabbed second place in 19:25.9 and led a Red Rams onslaught. Sophia Vinciguerra finished fourth, in 20:39.8, while Megan Brown finished sixth in 21:12.1 and Amelia Gilbert was eighth in 21:33.8.
Emily Shapiro, finishing 12th in 21:54.1, rounded out J-D’s scoring column, but more Red Rams runners followed, including Abby Palin, who was 16th in 22:06.9. Ayla Erwin was 21st, in 22:34.2, while Samantha Aitken was 23rd in 22:38.8 and Alisa Salbert was 25th in 22:55.9. Abby Leavitt (23:19.0) and Kim Walsh (23:25.2) were 31st and 32nd, respectively, ahead of Amanda Semmel (23:42.4), Sarah Hildreth (23:42.9) and Olivia Budelmann (23:44.6).
ESM, meanwhile, had no one else other than Marra in the top 10, though Marina Lopez finished 15th in 22:01 flat. Megan Vanderwarker was 24th, in 22;46.2, two spots ahead of Yamila Wunsch ( 22:56.7) in 26th place. Sarah Tingley was 30th in 23:14.8 and Madison Carr (23:31.8) was 36th, ahead of Olivia Rivera (23:48.1), Makaila White (23:51.2) and Mary Neff (24:18.0), who had top-50 finishes.
Moving to the boys OHSL Freedom race, Matt Young matched Marra with an individual title. Y oung needed 16 minutes, 44.3 seconds to cover the Pine Grove course and pull away from Chittenango’s Mike Capeling (17:04.7) for the top spot.
In the team race, ESM was third, with 96 points, behind Central Square (74 points) and Cortland (80 points), only because Young, Jared Henry and Nick Berg all finished in the top five. Henry took third place in 17:10.7 behind Young and Capeling, with Berg fitting into fifth place in 17:34.2. David Rivers, in 19:11.1, was back in 34th place as Jacob Perrotta was 56th in 19:48.3.
J-D’s boys team finished seventh in the 10-team field with 152 points, led by Andrew Comanici, who gained 15th place in 18:31.1. Miles Chandler was 21st, in 18:48.8, with Matt Salbert getting to 23rd place in 18:52.7. Tyler Glowaki (19:32.4) beat out James Pieri (19:42.2) for 46th place.
Meanwhile, at Liverpool’s Long Branch Park, Christian Brothers Academy star Dominic Morganti finished second in the boys OHSL Liberty division championship, Morganti’s time of 15 minutes, 52.5 seconds left him a runner-up behind Hannibal’s Jason McFarland, who won in 15:52.5.
As a team, CBA was sixth in the nine-team field, with 141 points as Marcellus (47 points) grabbed the top spot. Brendan Keeney just missed the top 10 for the Brothers, settling for 11th place in 16:58.6, while Tom Culeton was 41st in 18:05.5 and Riley Nash (18:15.2) was 44th. Duncan Brickner grabbed 60th place in 18:58.4.
Though without a full team for its OHSL Liberty meet, CBA’s girls still featured Lucy Person, who rose all the way to ninth place with her time of 19:55 flat, with Jordan-Elbridge’s Abby Gugel (18:11.0) earning the victory. Kat Fletcher was 45th, in 23:18.5, one spot ahead of Meghan Graber (23:21.2) in 46th place.
CBA and J-D both had a presence in Saturday’s Chittenango Invitational, where Morganti finished second in the boys race in 16:52.9, trailing only Cicero-North Syracuse’s Andrew Bearkland, who won with 16:46.3.
Team-wise, the Brothers were seventh out of 13 boys sides, with Brickner finishing 41st in 19:37.8 and Nash 44th in 19:43.9, each of them in front of Culeton (20:32.1) and Zach Kinnally (20:40.2).
In the girls Chittenango Invitational, J-D was third with 96 points, behind only C-NS and Vestal, and Butler made a bid to win the individual race, finishing in 19:30.2 to top everyone except Tully seventh-grade sensation Brooke Rauber, who won in 19:04.8 by nearly half a minute over Butler.
Vinciguerra, meanwhile, ran to seventh place in 20:34.8, though the other J-D point-earners were further back, Salbert getting to 33rd place in 23:04.8, one spot ahead of Aitken (23:06.6) and three spots clear of Leavitt (23;20.6). Erwin (23:36.5), Budelman (23:45.3) and Hildreth (24 minutes flat) were further back.
