Whether it was Marcellus on the boys side or Westhill-Bishop Ludden on the girls side, the area’s cross country teams took charge during Wednesday’s Onondaga High School League Liberty division championship meet at Long Branch Park in Liverpool.
For the boys title, it was Marcellus holding off Westhill-Ludden for that top spot, the Mustangs getting 47 points to the Warriors’ 71, while Jordan-Elbridge grabbed fourth place with 126 points and Solvay was ninth with 276 points.
Individually, though Hannibal’s Jason McFarland won in 15 minutes, 31.4 seconds, Marcellus started to take over when Patrick McGuane grabbed fourth place in 16:12.2 and Ethan Mosure made it to sixth place in 16:51.2.
Following them, Joe Riccardi got to 10th place in 16:55 flat, with MichaelBrown, in 13th place (17:03.7), and Andrew Marsh, in 14th place (17:09.1), rounding out the scoring column and clinching the team crown. Sean Raymond was 17th, in 17:10.6, with Grayson Hoag 26th in 17:40.4, ahead of Riley Burns (17:57.2) in 32nd, along with Mathew Strempel (18:00.3) and Michael Welch (18:12.5).
Westhill-Ludden challenged with Garnet Remillard making it to third place in 15:58.8 behind McFarland and CBA’s Dominic Morganti (15:52.5).
But the next Warriors runner didn’t cross the line until Alex Ladstatter got 15th place in 17:10 flat, inches ahead of Bryan King (17:10.4) in 16th place. Dan Washburn (17:11.2) and Luke Sekowski (17:13.4) were 18th and 19th, respectively, as Jack Mannion took 22nd in 17:23 flat and Jake Suddaby (17:54.6) was 30th.
Hunter Brunelle led Jordan-Elbridge’s efforts, finishing fifth in 16:42.1. Much further back, Ethan Kinney got 21st place in 17:22.6, with Jared Alpha 24th in 17:37.3. Hugh Schader took 34th place in 17:59.7 and Matt Sheldon (18:18.3) was 48th. Solvay’s top runner, Colton Francemone, finished 55th in a time of 18:35.1, nine spots ahead of Jonah Wheeler (19:10.2) and 11 better than John Brusa (19:21.5).
The girls race would include a victory by Jordan-Elbridge senior Abby Gugel, who needed exactly 18 minutes, 11 seconds to traverse the Long Branch course (a past Section III championship venue) and pull away from Cazenovia’s Meggie Hart (18:27.2) for that top spot.
On the team side, Westhill-Ludden topped Cazenovia, 43 points to 60, by placing six of its runners in the top 21, compared to the Lakers’ four.
Genny Corcoran led that group, taking third place in 18:37.1, while Alaina Kenny got sixth place in 19:21.9 and Haylei Coolican finished eighth in 19:41.2. Maura McAnaney got to 12th place in 20:10.6 as Annibel Coolican got 17th place (20:56.8) and Kendra MacCaull was 21st in 21:07 flat.
Meanwhile, Gugel propelled J-E to a third-place finish with 82 points, helped by Theresa Dristle, who finished 11th in 20:05.4, and Madison Daly, who stepped up and got 14th place in 20:40.5. Abby Skotinski recorded a 28th-place time of 21:28 flat as Maggie DeJohn (23:06.1) and Emily Kuehnle (23:17.9) were 42nd and 44th, respectively.
To finish sixth with 156 points, Marcellus saw Morgan Gould lead its efforts, getting to 19th place in a clocking of 21:03 flat. Schuyler Stuart, in 21:45.3, gained 30th place, while Mary-Catherine Coon (24:00.2) edged out Brittany LaClair (24:09.5) for 47th place and Emma Stuart (25:20.6) trailed them.
Solvay did not field a full team, but still had Jordyn Willsey stand out, gaining 13th place in a time of 20:32.8, while Zoe Francemone finished 39th in 22:43.3 and Kyra Crossett, in 24:52.2, gained 51st place.
