One more time, cross country teams from Fayetteville-Manlius are on their way to Portland, Oregon and the season’s ultimate test.
With a lopsided boys victory and a solid second-place girls finish in Saturday’s New York Region Qualifier at Bowdoin Park in Wappingers Falls, both sets of Hornets earned berths in the Nike Cross Nationals.
Two weeks had passed since the F-M boys had rolled to the New York State Public High School Athletic Association Class A title, and it would win big again at Bowdoin Park, where things had cleared out after snow had forced the cancellation of the Nov. 17 state Federation meet.
Under the Manlius XC banner, F-M finished with 28 points. Class B state champion Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake (as Deluge XC) was second with 76 points and Liverpool was third with 126 points.
Garrett Brennan led the way for the Horrnets, taking third place among individuals, and second in the team standings, in 15 minutes, 58.2 seconds, not far from the winning 15:51 flat by Parker Stokes II.
Yet Brennan had company from teammates Geoff Howles and Sam Otis, with Howles taking fourth place (third in the team race) in 16:00.6 and Otis a step behind in 16:00.7.
Matt Tripp also had a top-10 individual finish and was sixth in the team standings in 16:18.3, while Peyton Geehrer got 13th place in the team race (25th overall) in 16:42.6. Yakob Kelley ran well, too, getting to 28th place among individuals in 16:45.5 as Nolan Chiles finished in 17:28.7.
The girls race provided a combination of battles, F-M going up against the Saratoga Springs side that beat them by a single point in the NYSPHSAA meet two weeks earlier while also having a rematch with Liverpool, whom it beat by that same one-point margin in the Nov. 3 Section III meet at Chittenango.
As it turned out, it was close again at the top – and again, Saratoga got the best of it, the Blue Streaks edging F-M 63 points to 65. Liverpool finished third, with 91 points, and would, along with its boys team, join the F-M girls in gaining an at-large bid for the Nike Nationals.
At Bowdoin Park, F-M got the jump when Claire Walters, in a time of 17:54.7, finished ahead of Saratoga’s Kelsey Chmiel (18:06.3) in third place, though both were far behind North Rockland star Katelyn Tuohy’s winning 17:14 flat.
Then the Hornets maintained the lead when Phoebe White finished seventh in the team standings in 18:50.9 and Grace Kaercher was ninth on the team side in 19:07.9. Saratoga had Ella Kurto sixth in those same team standings in 18:40.8 and McKinley Wheeler (19:30.0) in 14th place.
When Hannah Kaercher finished in 19:37 flat for 18th place in the team standings, she was behind Saratoga seventh-grader Emily Bush (19:34.7) in 15th place.
Then Sheridan Wheeler was 25th for Saratoga in 19:50.8, four spots ahead of Chloe Bullough (19:59.9), and the Hornets were back in second place as Lejla Borcilo (20:00.8) and Emily Cook (20:58.2) were further back.
Christian Brothers Academy senior Olivia Morganti had a top-10 finish, getting all the way to ninth place in 18:30.8, just behind Clinton’s Eva Borton (18:21.5), who was eighth, and Liverpool’s Jenna Schulz (18:21.2) in sixth place.
East Syracuse Minoa junior Nick Berg finished 45th in the boys championship race in a clocking of 17:01.7. His Spartans teammates were in the boys open race.
Michael Sanders led that group, finishing in 19:40.2, with Marcus Evans posting 19:56.2 ahead of Casey Enginieri (21:34.7), Josh Cain (25:06.7), Keegan Gamble (25:10.2), Raymond Lorenzo (26:03.5) and Colin Snook (29:16.7). Mary Roach was 98th in the girls open race in 24:16.9.
