Verona — When all was settled from Saturday’s Section III cross country championships at Vernon-Verona-Sherrill High School, the Marcellus boys and Westhill-Bishop Ludden were bringing home team championships, while Jordan-Elbridge’s Abby Gugel did the same as the girls individual Class C champion, nearly leading the Eagles to its own team crown.
In boys Class C, Marcellus entered as favorites, and did not disappoint, picking up 67 points to hold off runner-Up Adirondack (82 points) and 15 others, including J-E (173 points) in sixth place and Solvay in 15th place.
Patrick McGuane and Ethan Mosure both had top-10 individual efforts for the Mustangs, McGuane taking fifth place in 17 minutes, 28.6 seconds and Mosure getting to ninth place in 17:50.1 as Hannibal’s Jason McFarland, in 16:21.3, earned individual honors.
All told, five Mustangs cracked the top 20, with Michael Brown getting to 16th place in 18:05.1, just ahead of Mathew Strempel in 17th place (18:06.3) as Joe Riccardi clinched it with a 20th-place time of 18:09.8. Sean Raymond was 30th, in 18:34.8, with Grayson Hoag 45th in 19:05.9.
Meanwhile, in the girls Class B sectional race, Westhill-Ludden needed every bit of its depth to hold off Jamesville-DeWitt, the Warriors earning 55 points to the Red Rams’ 61 to finish on top.
Alaina Kenny finished fourth, in a time of 19:59.2, with Genny Corcoran getting to fifth place in 20:05.7 sandwiched in between J-D having Hannah Butler finish second (19:19.8) to East Syracuse Minoa’s Natalie Marra (19:10.0) and Butler’s teammate, Sophia Vinciguerra, finishing eighth.
Tied at that point, Westhill-Ludden got in front when Haylei Coolican got 10th place in 20:42.7, four spots ahead of J-D’s Amelia Gilbert in 14th place.
Then Maura McAnaney (21:47.0) beat out the Rams’ Emily Shapiro (21:49.4) for 16th place and Annibel Coolican clinched it by finishing 25th in 22:19.7, with Olivia Daigneau (22:35.3) in 31st place.
continued — J-E’s girls nearly equaled Westhill-Ludden’s sectional championship effort in the Class C girls meet, finishing with 59 points, just behind Cazenovia’s total of 56 points.
However, Gugel did win for the Eagles, the senior finishing in exactly 19 minutes, 37 seconds to hold off Cazenovia freshman Clara Rowles (19:41.4) for that top spot.
Theresa Dristle finished sixth, in 21:01.6, and will join Gugel, plus Clinton teammates Gab Dewhurst and Eva Borton and Skaneateles’ Julia Willcox, on the sectional All-Star side at the state meet.
Despite this, J-E could not hold off Cazenovia, even though Mary Elizabeth Dristle finished 13th in 21:58.5 and Madison Daly (22:14.1) took 18th place, with Maggie Dejohn 31st in 23:08.6.
Elsewhere in Class C, Marcellus was eighth in the 10-team field, the Mustangs seeing Morgan Gould finish 26th in 22:47.2 as Schuyler Stuart took 34th place in 23:21.7. Solvay’s Jordyn Willsey had a strong effort, rising all the way to 19th place in 22:21.6 as Zoe Francemone (24:13.3) finished 45th.
Earlier in the day, in the girls sectional Class A race, West Genesee, led by Carly Benson, finished second with 76 points, edging out (87 points) as no one was getting close to reigning state and national champion Fayetteville-Manlius (16 points).
In fact, it took Benson to break up an F-M sweep of the top eight, the sophomore nearly matching strides with the Hornets’ Kaitlyn Neal (who was competing a week after getting run over by a car while on a morning run) before finishing in 18:13.1, just behind Neal’s 18:07.5.
Benson is joined on the Section III All-Star team going to the state meet by Maria Matkoski, who grabbed the fifth and final spot by posting 20:00.6, well clear of her closest pursuer, Baldwinsville’s Elizabeth Fawwaz (20:10.4). Fawwaz’s teammate, Justus Holden-Betts, did make it, as did Liverpool’s Juliana Basla and Rome Free Academy’s Marian Draper.
continued — As for the rest of the Wildcats, Kendall Dombroskie got close to a state meet berth, but settled for 18th place in 20:26 flat. Sarah Ferranti was 21st, in 20:41.5, while Rachel Flynn was 29th in 21:39.7 and Emma Farmer (22:07.8) finished 40th.
Other than the Marcellus team, the only other local boys runner heading to Monroe-Woodbury is another West Genesee standout, David Leff.
By finishing fifth in the sectional Class A race in 16:18.2, Leff will join Central Square’s Sean Kuehn and a trio from Fayetteville-Manlius – Peter Ryan, Patrick Perry and Joe Walters – after the defending state champion Hornets was stunned in the team competition by Liverpool, 46 points to the Warriors’ 42.
WG, for its part, gained fourth place in Class A with 118 points. Behind Leff, Ryan Dunning fared best for the Wildcats, getting 23rd place in 17:34.5, while Sean Byrnes was 25th in 17:40 flat. Sean O’Brien (18:10.5) beat out Russ Graziano (18:11.1) for 37th place as Hunter Buza (18:16.5) finished 41st.
The J-E boys in Class C featured Hunter Brunelle, who finished 10th in 17:52.3. But the Eagles’ second runner didn’t cross the line until Ethan Kinney got 29th place in 18:33.6, with Jared Alpha 34th in 18:41.7 and Hugh Schader 44th in 19:04.5.
Dan Jorolemon, in 19:31 flat, was 58th, four spots ahead of Matt Sheldon (19:35.2), each of them behind Solvay’s top runner, Colton Francemone, who was 49th in 19:17 flat.
Up in Class B boys, Westhill-Ludden made its way to third place with 150 points, trailing only first-time sectional champion New Hartford (93 points) and Carthage (104 points).
Garnet Remillard led the Warriors, earning seventh place in 17:14.8, just two spots out of qualifying for the state meet. Dan Washburn was 26th, in 18:21.2, while Jake Suddaby got to 37th place in 18:45.6, just ahead of Luke Sekowski in 39th (18:48.6) and Jack Manion (18:53.6) in 41st place.
