East Syracuse Minoa’s cross country teams would host its annual invitational meet last Saturday, and nearly would win the boys team title, while seeing its neighbors from Jamesville-DeWitt swoop in to earn the girls team championship.
Even without its top runner, Hannah Butler, in the lineup, the Red Rams earned 86 points to pull away from Harley Annandale Columbia, who finished second with 112 points. Host ESM had to settle for ninth place with 224 points.
Sophia Vinciguerra was J-D’s top individual, finishing in 20 minutes, 6.7 seconds for ninth place as Tully eighth-grader Brooke Rauber won in 18:40.3, but it was the Rams’ depth that made the difference.
Abby Palin, who finished 17th in 21:25.8, led a close pack of Rams where Megan Brown took 19th place in 21:31.4 and Amelia Gilbert was 20th in 21:31.8. Just behind them, Lily Dougherty, in 21st place (21:32.7), clinched the J-D victory as Jessica Spina was 24th in 21:59 flat and Samantha Aitken was 40th in 23:13.4.
ESM could not get anyone within the top 20, Marina Lopez pacing the Spartans as she finished 25th in 22:05.7. Sarah Tingley was 29th, in 22:24.8, while Julia Schug, in 24:00.1, was 51st, ahead of Isabella Talarico (24:32.4), Madison Carr (25:38.6), Amy Havill (27:58.7) and Mackenzie Snyder (28:49.3).
It proved quite different for ESM in the boys meet, where it finished with 87 points and topped everyone in the 15-team field except Fulton, who won with 82 points. Vestal was third with 88 points and J-D, with 96 points, grabbed fourth place.
Despite the team standings, it was the Red Rams’ Patrick Dye victorious on the individual side. Pulling away from the pack, Dye, in 16 minutes, 2.7 seconds, beat the runner-up, Syracuse West’s Solomon Lawrence (16:27.0), by nearly half a minute.
Spartans freshman Nick Berg finished fourth in 16:45.6, with Jared Henry seventh in 17:31.6. David Rivers, finishing in 18:07.8, beat out Nolan Byrd (18:13.0) for 14th place in the team standings as Nate Castor (19:35.1) was further back, followed by Jake Perrotta (20:07.2) and Mike Nesci (20:15.8).
J-D’s Sam Glisson finished 21st among team runners, and 20th overall, with his time of 18:24 flat. Nick Mannion finished in 18:38.2 to place 24th in the team standings, ahead of Kaleel Boykins (25th, 18:40.1) and Luke Hobika (26th, 18:44.4) as Ahviere Reese was 32nd in 18:57.9 and Chris Blust (20:02.8) followed.
Before this, Fayetteville-Manlius swept both sides of its CNY Counties League meet with Syracuse West last Wednesday afternoon, prevailing 15-50 on the girls side and winning 19-51 in the boys meet.
‘The girls Hornets, again sitting atop the state Class A rankings, rested most of its top runners, so others got a chance to shine, including Keita Peden, who won the individual race in 19:58, nearly half a minute ahead of Haleigh Pascual (20:23) in second place.
Emily Cook was third in 20:23, part of a top-eight sweep where Maya Chiesa, in fourth place (21:20), led a pack that included Chloe Bullough (21:27), Grace Perry (21:39), Grace Hausladen (21:44) and Jess Aspinall (21:50).
Syracuse West did bring star distance runners Solomon Lawrence into the mix for the boys race, and he finished in 16 minutes, 54 seconds, beating every F-M runner except Patrick Perry, who blazed to a top time of 16:09.
Eli Capri rose up to take third place in 17:42. Then Jack Boltman, in fourth place in 17:54), led a pack where Ben Otis, Garrett Brennan and Matt Tripp each finished in 17:55 and Max Perry (17:56) was close behind. Mark Hanlon finished 10th in 19:02.