A full seven weeks before the New York State Public High School Athletic Association girls cross country championships get decided at Chenango Valley, Fayetteville-Manlius and other local sides went there for a sneak preview, and enjoyed the show.
The F-M girls, in particular, enjoyed things as it won the fourth of six separate races contested in last Saturday’s McDaniel-Baxter Invitational and was the fastest overall team, too, by a large margin over runner-up North Rockland as 85 girls and 92 boys teams competed overall.
Of the 30 fastest girls times of the entire day, five were by Hornets runners, led by freshman Claire Walters, who finished in 18 minutes, 15.1 seconds to take fourth overall as Corning star Jessica Lawson had the day’s best time of 17:26.4.
In her own race, Walters was nipped at the finish line by Webster Thomas’ Amanda Vestri, who won in 18:15 flat by one-tenth of a second. But four of Walters’ teammates followed as Sophie Ryan was third in 18:27.4, with Palmer Madsen fourth in 18:43 flat, Phoebe White took fifth place in 18:53.6 and Rebecca Walters was sixth in 19:21.6. Reilly Madsen (19:52.5) and Keita Peden (20:06.8) also ran well.
For the F-M boys team, also atop its state Class A rankings, it had to settle for second place in its race with 85 points behind Corning, who not only won with 49 points, but had the best overall score of the day, ahead of Saratoga Springs in second place and the Hornets in third place.
As Corning’s Kevin Moshier posted the day’s fastest time of 15:41.6, F-M’s Patrick Perry had to settle for fifth place in 15:58.8 trailing, among others, Liverpool teammates Ty Brownlow (15:52.1) and Steve Schulz (15:55.3), who were second and third, respectively.
Meanwhile, Ben Otis was 12th in his race in 15:58.8, two spots ahead of Garrett Brennan (16:34.5) in 14th place. Matt Tripp finished 20th in 16:40.9 as Max Perry, in 37th place (17:09.0), was just ahead of Eli Capri (17:17.0) and Jack Duncanson (17:19.9).
Jamesville-DeWitt had its girls team at Chenango Valley finish third in its division behind North Rockland and Corning and ninth overall, with Hannah Butler posting the 10th-fastest time of the entire meet as she finished in 18:44 flat, but that was just sixth place in her loaded individual field.
Sophia Vinciguerra also helped the Red Rams, getting to 15th place in her race in 20:23.0 as Abby Palin was 19th in 20:42.7. Megan Brown earned a 25th-place time of 20:56.8 as Amelia Gilbert was 29th in 21.11.5, with Lily Dougherty 34th in 21:32.3 and Jessica Spina 35th in 21:44.3.
Back home, the J-D boys took part in the Large School division of the Baldwinsville Invitational, where it finished eighth despite Patrick Dye going all the way to second place in 15:07.5, trailing only West Genesee’s David Leff, who won in 15:06.4.
Kaleel Boykins led the rest of the Red Rams’ pack, finishing 48th in 17:06.7. Nick Mannion was 53rd and Mac Tupper 54th, each of them posting 17:12 flat as Ahviere Reese was 59th in 17:21.8. Sam Glisson (17:41.4) and Luke Hobika (17:51.8) finished behind them.
Christian Brothers Academy also raced at Chenango Valley, in the same divisions as F-M, with Dominic Morganti making it all the way to third place in the boys race in 16:08.5 behind Moshier and Patrick Perry. Will Bianchi (18:29.0) beat out Riley Nash (18:56.0), Adam Kantor (19:25.0) and Duncan Brickner (19:56.2).
And the CBA girls were seventh out of 15 teams in F-M’s race, led by Cory Knox, who got to 24th place in 20:32.4, five spots ahead of Lea Kyle (20:53.7). Deja Jones finished in 21:18.2 for 39th place, with Bri Pucci in 44th place (21:36.0) and Claire Bargabos (22:27.4) in 58th place.
Earlier in the day, East Syracuse Minoa competed at Chenango Valley, and freshman Nick Berg, winner of the ESM Invitational on Sept. 17, nearly prevailed here, in the third boys race at Chenango Valley, Berg going 16:52.2 to finish second behind Sauquoit Valley’s Dylan Canarelli, who won in 16:13.8.
Not only did Berg run well, so did Jared Henry, the senior racing to fifth place in 17:15.8. Another freshman, Nolan Byrd, was 21st in 18:02 flat, beating out David Rivers (18:02.4) for that spot as Nate Castor (19:29.2), Mike Nesci (19:55.1) and Mike Sanders (19:59.8) followed.
In the girls race, ESM’s Sarah Tingley was 37th in her division with a time of 21:46.3. Marina Lopez was 44th, in 22:09.6, ahead of Julia Schug (23:19.7), Bella Talarico (23:25.0), Mary Neff (24:28.9), Madison Carr (24:45.5) and April Hathaway (26:07.2).
