Perhaps the days where the Skaneateles girls cross country team ran around and over foes in the OHSL Liberty division are gone, but there’s still plenty of room for individual glory.
Julia Willcox took this to heart when the Lakers ventured to the 65th annual Baldwinsville Invitational last Saturday and earned the victory in the Small School division, beating a field of more than 160 challengers.
Cool conditions, perfect for running, greeted the field, and Willcox thrived in it, finishing in 18 minutes, 56.9 seconds, the only sub-19-minute time in the field as she pulled away to win by more than 22 seconds over Chenango Forks’ Katie Flynn, who was second in 19:19.4.
Natalie Condon also had a top-10 finish, getting eighth place in 19:41 flat to help Skaneateles eventually finish fourth in a 19-team field with 123 points. Vernon-Verona-Sherrill won with 101 points, edging out Port Byron (106 points) as Waterloo was third with 115 points.
Maddy Brogan made her way to 14th place in a time of 20:02.9, but among team runners no other Lakers was in the top 40 as Chloe Metz got 48th place in 22:36.1, just ahead of Morgan Dodds (22:44.4) in 52nd place as Georgia McSwain (23:07.8) and Hannah Atkinson (24:28.2) followed.
The Skaneateles girls began its league schedule last Wednesday at Jordan-Elbridge as part of a three-team meet with Christian Brothers Academy. In a time of 19 minutes, seven seconds, Willcox pulled away from CBA’s Lexi Kyle (19:26) and Cory Knox (19:27) and finished first.
However, on the team side, Skaneateles lost to J-E 26-37 and also fell to CBA 20-37. Other than Willcox, only Condon finished in the top 10 of individuals, posting a time of 20:37 as Theresa Dristle (19:45) and Mary Elizabeth Dristle (20:06) led J-E’s efforts.
Moving to the boys meet, Skaneateles nearly salvaged a split, but took a two-point defeat to CBA 27-29 as it also fell to J-E by a 17-44 margin.
Tyler Lewis led the Lakers’ efforts, making it to sixth place in 17:59, three seconds ahead of teammate Calvin Blackwell (18:02) in seventh place as CBA’s Dominic Morganti won the individual race in 17:06 and J-E swept the rest of the top five, led by Hunter Brunelle, who was second in 17:30.
Like their female counterparts, the boys Lakers also took part in the Baldwinsville Invitational, getting 12th place, right in the middle of a 23-team field, as Blackwell finished 32nd among individuals and 36th overall with a time of 17:36.8.
For his part, Lewis got to 47th place in the team standings (53rd overall) in 18:02.5, with J.W. Simmons earning 55th place in 18:15.6. Further back, Joe Capozza, in a clocking of 18:55.7, beat Alex Wulff (19:05.8), Tony Dirubbo (19:19.3) and Ben Blackwell (19:20.8) to the line.
