A decade of astonishing success – to the tune of nine national championships in 10 years – has given the Fayetteville-Manlius girls cross country program legendary status, but no one in the Hornets program is content with those marks.
The aim for F-M in 2016 is to, at least, sweep both of the state Class A titles, with the boys trying to regain the throne that Liverpool took from them a season ago, and they got started on this path by sweeping last Wednesday’s CNY Counties League opener at West Genesee.
For the boys Hornets, who prevailed 19-44, Patrick Perry pulled away to win in 16 minutes, 26.4 seconds, well clear of the Wildcats’ David Leff (16:46.9) in the runner-up spot.
Then F-M swept the next six spots, starting with Jack Boltman, who was third in 17;23 flat as Ben Otis (17:23.6) and Garrett Brennan (17:36.6) rounded out the top five. Max Perry was sixth in 17:43.2, with Matt Tripp (17:47.3) edging out Jack Duncanson (17:47.8) in seventh place.
Meanwhile, F-M’s girls team beat West Genesee 18-37, seeing Sophia Ryan pull away from the pack to win in a time of 19:01. She was nearly half a minute ahead of Claire Walters, whose time of 19:29.9 put her ahead of the Wildcats’ Emily Young (19:39) in third place.
Phoebe White was fourth, in 19:57.1, leading a quartet of F-M runners. Rebecca Walters was fifth, in 20:06, with Palmer Madsen sixth in 20:36.7 and Reilly Madsen seventh in 21:03.8. Alexis Villalba gained 10th place in 21:41.6.
F-M then went down the road on Saturday to race in the Chittenango Invitational on the same course where the Nov. 5 Section III championships will take place, and roared to easy victories in both of the Varsity Race 2 segments.
For the girls race, it was Claire Walters prevailing in a time of 18:38.5, well clear of Tully eighth-grader Brooke Rauber (18:51.3) in second place. Rebecca Walters, who was third in 19:14.6, led a Hornets wave as White was fourth in 19:21.5, with Ryan fifth (19:44.2) and Palmer Madsen sixth in 19:48.1. Reilly Madsen was 11th in 20:14.3, two spots ahead of Villalba (20:28.4) in 13th place.
Of the top 13 finishers in the boys Varsity 2 race, seven were from F-M, including Patrick Perry, who put up the day’s fastest time of 16:15.9, more than half a minute ahead of Otis, who was second in 16:50 flat.
Brennan was fourth in 16:53.9, holding off Tripp (16:57.0) in fifth place as Boltman was seventh in 17:04.9. Duncanson just missed a top-10 finish, settling for 11th place in 17:33.2 as Max Perry earned 13th place in 17:45.5.
In Varsity Race 1, the Jamesville-DeWitt girls team finished fourth behind West Genesee, Liverpool and Baldwinsville, but Hannah Butler won the individual race, her time of 18:52.4 enough to pull away from WG’s Emily Young (19:28.4) in the runner-up spot.
Sophia Vinciguerra gave the Red Rams a 17th-place finish in 21:19.9, with Abby Palin 28th in 21:58.2, just ahead of Megan Brown (30th, 22:07.1) and Amelia Gilbert (31st, 22:09.3). Lily Dougherty was 35th in 22:27.5, three spots ahead of Jessica Spina (22:31.1).
J-D also got an individual victory in boys Varsity Race 4 from Patrick Dye, who needed 16 minutes, 33.9 seconds to roll to first place, well clear of Sauquoit Valley’s Dylan Canarelli (16:56.2) in second place.
The boys Red Rams only finished third in the team standings behind Sauquoit and Beaver River, with Sam Glisson J-D’s only other top-20 runner, finishing 16th in 19:07.7. Luke Hobika was 27th, in 19:42.5, ahead of Nick Mannion (19:49.4), Ahviere Reese (20:01.1), Kaleel Boykins (20:12.6) and Alan Gao (20:21.9).
Christian Brothers Academy had a sixth-place finish in girls Varsity Race 1, two behind J-D. Lea Kyle ran to 15th place in 21:15.9, with Deja Jones 23rd in 21:46.9. Cory Knox got 32nd place in 22:21.1 ahead of Lucy Person (22:26.8), Claire Bargabos (22:30.3) and Bri Pucci (23:06.9).
Moving to the boys Varsity Race 1, CBA star Dominic Morganti finished third in 16:25.3, not far from the winning 16:01.4 posted by Liverpool’s Ty Brownlow. But no other Brothers competitor cracked the top 40, though Will Bianchi got close, finishing 44th in 19:22.6.
East Syracuse Minoa also was here, in Race 3, where it finished second in the boys division with 79 points behind host Chittenango (39 points), but had the individual champion in freshman Nick Berg, whose time of 17:35.3 was more than a minute ahead of the Bears’ Ersilio Cerminero (18:51.3) in second place.
Chittenango had four of the top eight finishers before ESM’s Jared Henry crossed in 10th place in 19:30 flat. Nolan Byrd (19:49.1) beat out David Rivers (19:50.5) for 18th place, while Nate Castor was 31st in 20:49.9 ahead of Mike Nesci (21:19.1) and Spencer Carnival (22;51.9).
The girls varsity race was shortened to 1.7 miles due to a heat index that pushed toward 100 degrees. In it, ESM’s Sarah Tingley was ninth in 12:37.3 and Marina Lopez got 12th place in 12:47.8 as Yamila Wunsch (13:42.9), Julia Schug (13:57.8) and Madison Carr (14:08.2) all had top-30 finishes.
Bishop Grimes and Manlius-Pebble Hill ran against each other last Wednesday. It was a 1-2 sweep for the Cobras in the girls race, where Abby Wilkinson prevailed in 15:10, more than a minute ahead of Sara Hopkins, who finished in 16:20. Three Trojans followed as Carli Arbon was third (17:26), Rachel Elman fourth (18:03) and Mya Heimes (18:16) in fifth place.
Also running for Grimes, Chris Larson took the individual boys race in 12:37. Dan Braverman led MPH and finished sixth in 15:04, edging teammate Nate Collinsworth (15:06), while the Cobras’ John Kane was seventh in 16:30. The Trojans’ Henry St. John (19:12) was 12th.
