West Genesee’s cross country teams attled for the girls Large School division championship at last Saturday’s Baldwinsville Invitational, finishing with 76 points totop everyone except the host Bees, who won with 71 points and took individual honors when Justus Holden-Betts won in 17:51.9.
Behind Holden-Betts, the Wildcats’ Carly Benson gained third place in 18:01.5, with Emily Young fifth in 18:09.2) and Mia Mitchell (18:32.1) in seventh place.
But B’ville had five top-30 finishers as opposed to WG’s four, which made the difference as Hannah Craybas (19:47.1), Emma Farmer (20:39.6), Liz Morey (20:46.0) and Amanda Lowther (21:39.7) followed WG’s top runners.
Amid a fifth-place finish in the boys Large School division at B’ville, WG’s David Leff won the race in 15 minutes, 6.4 seconds, edging out Jamesville-DeWitt’s Patrick Dye (15:07.5) by 1.1 seconds at the line.
No other Wildcats runner hit the top 20, though Sean Byrnes got close with a 24th-place time of 16:09.4. Ryan Dunning was 27th in the team race in 16:18.2, well clear of Paul Stannard (16:58.2) and Patrick Trivison (16:58.8), who were 42nd and 43rd, respectively. Sean O’Brien (17:10.1) and Jack Richards (17:19.8) followed.
Meanwhile, the Jordan-Elbridge girls team finished fifth among Small Schools at B’ville. The Eagles had Theresa Dristle finish 10th in 19:46.4, just ahead of Mary Elizabeth Dristle (19:53.1) in 11th place. Madison Daly was 24th in the team event in 20:59.8, followed by Maggie DeJohn (21:50.5), Olivia Minikheim (22:40.7), Delaney Dunham (23:05.0) and Lindsay Jackson (24:14.2).
For Solvay, Willsey finished 18th in the girls small school race in 20:10 flat. While Solvay’s boys included Jonah Wheeler, whose time of 18:37.8 put him ahead of John Brusa (19:17.5), Max Melnyk (19:33.3), Adam Delucia (20:27.5) and Tim Brusa (20:27.8).
Westhill-Bishop Ludden took a much longer trip, the site of this year’s state championship meet at Chenago Valley, where the girls had a fifth-place finish in Race 5, home to Corning’s Jessica Lawson, who won with a blazing time of 17:26.4, the best of the whole meet, though her team finished second to North Rockland.
Individually for the Warriors, Haylei Coolican finished 12th among team runners in 20:10.1, while Maura McAnaney was 26th in 21:01.8. Alaina Kenny, in 21:04.3, was just two spots behind McAnaney as Kendra McCaull (21:51.8) beat out Meghan Evans (22:03.0), Carmelia Carr (22:14.7) and Sarah Thompson (23:18.5).
In the middle of the boys pack at Chenango Valley, Westhill-Ludden got seventh place in Varsity Race 5, where two other Section III teams, Sauquoit Valley and Tully, ruled at the top.
Still, the Warriors had Jake Suddaby go under the 18-minute mark, winning in 17:59.8. Dan Washburn finished in 18:14.9 to edge out Cade Van Ornam (18:15.1) as Brendan Rewakowski, who finished in 18:21.7, was ahead of Jack Mannion (18:52.3), Jacob Fricano (19:02.9) and Alex Ladstatter, who finished in 19:16 flat.
Marcellus also raced at Chenango Valley, where the boys Mustangs were third in the last of the six varsity races. Joe Riccardi was ninth in 17:22.4, with Matt Strempel 10th in 17:33.8. Sean Raymond got 20th place in 17:49.9 as Ethan Mosure was 25th in 18:01 flat. Andrew Marsh (18:17.5) edged out Michael Brown (18:17.7) and Michael Welch (18:27.1) for 30th place in the team standings.
The Marcellus girls finished fifth in its division as Liliiana Cushman got 10th place in her race in a time of 21:16.5, with Morgan Gould 12th in 21:21.2. Crystal Silliman had a 27th-place clocking of 22;42.7 as Caroline Carlic was 32nd in 23:02.7, ahead of Maggie Strempel (23:46.8), Emma Stewart (25:13.5) and Amy Francesconi, who finished in 26:40.4.
