Some close competition highlighted the array of meets for local cross country teams last Wednesday afternoon, especially with the East Syracuse Minoa girls side in its three-team meet against Auburn and Cortland at Pine Grove Middle School.
The girls Spartans defeated the Purple Tigers 24-31, but fell to the Maroons 27-30, with Cortland’s Lauren Phetteplace winning in 21 minutes, eight seconds and three Auburn runners finishing ahead of Sarah Tingley, who paced ESM with a clocking of 22:16.
Julia Schug was right behind Tingley, getting to sixth place in 22:48, and the fact that Bella Tallarico was eighth in 23:26 and Mary Neff got to ninth place in 23:35 helped the Spartans overtake Cortland, though Auburn held on.
It was also competitive in the boys meet between ESM and Cortland, but the Spartans prevailed, 25-33, part of a sweep where it also handled Auburn 15-46. Nick Berg won the race in 16:55, nearly a minute ahead of teammate Jared Henry (16:44) in the second spot.
Noah Watkins, third in 17:45, led a trio of Purple Tigers that included Andy Ryan (17:59) and Tyler Stevens (18:20), but ESM’s David Rivers was sixth in 18:47, with Nolan Byrd seventh in 19:01 and Nate Castor (19:33) getting ninth place to cinch the sweep.
ESM went from there to Saturday’s Auburn Invitational, where Berg finished third in the boys race in 16:33.4 and Rivers was 26th. Sanders (19:17.1), Spencer Carnival (19:59.8) and Evan Zelenz (20:22.0) were further back as, on the girls side, Marina Lopez finished 15th in 21:49.8, with Tingley 18th (22;38.8) and Schug 19th in 22;59 flat.
Jamesville-DeWitt hosted Central Square and Oswego last Wednesday, and the girls Red Rams won both sides of it, holding off the Redhawks 23-36 and routing the Buccaneers with a perfect 15-50 total.
The J-D girls swept despite Central Square’s Eva Keohane prevailing in 20:29, more than a minute ahead of the Rams’ Abby Palin, who was second in 21:31, half a minute clear of Eva Dougherty, who in 22:01 edged the Redhawks’ Anna Wheeler (22:03) for third place.
Hannah Butler hung back and, with a fifth-place finish in 22:03, finished just ahead of teammates Ally Street (22:07), Megan Brown (22:15) and Sam Aitken (22:40), all of which helped J-D pull clear of Central Square.
The sweep for J-D’s boys team was even more emphatic, the 15-50 total against Oswego earned again, but complemented by a 19-43 win over Central Square plus a dominance of the individual race by Patrick Dye, who in 16:36 beat the Redhawks’ Frank Derdzinski (18:23) by nearly two minutes.
Nick Mannion, who was third in 18:40, began a large J-D pack that included Kaleel Boykins (18:41), Alan Gao (18:44) and Mac Tupper (18:45), with Luke Hobika seventh in 18:53. Fidel Martines (18:57) and Adam Hyatt (19:05) also had top-10 efforts.
J-D’s team went to Rochester’s Genesee Valley Park for last Saturday’s 51st annual McQuaid Invitational. In the Sophomore Girls race, Vinciguerra was fourth, in 19:36.4, edging out Palin (19:37.3) for that spot as Gilbert finished 12th in 20:13.6.
With Vinciguerra, Palin and Gilbert third, fourth and seventh in the team standings, respectively, J-D won the team event with 58 points to runner-up Clarence’s 71 points as Dougherty got 13th place in 20:40.1, ahead of Aitken (21;24.3), Olivia Budelmann (21:31.9) and Emma Sullivan (22:22.1).
Place in the Varsity AA boys race, J-D had Dye make it to fourth place among individuals in 15:10.2, more than two minutes better than his teammates, led by Boykins, who in 17:13.1 finished ahead of Hobika (17:16.9), Ahviere Reese (17:28.8), Martinez (17:36.2), Mannion (17;44.1) and Tupper (18:08.4).
Christian Brothers Academy took on Hannibal and would split that meet, the girls prevailing 17-38 to make up for the boys taking an 18-40 defeat to the Warriors.
During the girls race, CBA runners swept the top three spots as Lea Kyle won in 18;11, with Cory Knox second in 18:30 and Deja Jones (18;38) getting to third place. Hannibal’s Riley Harris was fourth in 19 minutes flat, but Bri Pucci (19:17) and Claire Bargabos (19:42) claimed the next two positions for the victorious Brothers.
It didn’t help CBA’s boys to have its top runner, Dominic Morganti, out of the lineup. Still, Will Bianchi got third place in 16:28 behind Hannibal’s Austin Cooper (16:01) and Noah Kuc (16:22), while Riley Nash earned seventh place in 16:53. Adam Kantor was ninth in 17:19, two seconds ahead of Zach Kinnally (17:21) in 10th place.
And then, on Saturday, the Brothers emerged victorious on the girls side at the same Auburn Invitational where ESM competed because it swept five of the top nine spots.
Kyle won in 19 minutes, 57.1 seconds, and Knox was second in 20:19.4. Jones was fourth (20:26.5) as Bargabos finished sixth in 20:48 flat and Pucci (20:59.5) took ninth place. In the boys race, Nash was 24th in 18:16.4, three spots ahead of Bianchi (18:26.1), with Zach Medicis (19:13.5) and Adam Kantor (19:14.5) further back.
Manlius-Pebble Hill raced against Onondaga and LaFayette a day earlier, with the Trojans’ Rachel Elman finishing seventh in the girls race in a time of 23:53 and Carli Arbon (24:04) earning a ninth-place finish as the Lancers’ Marissa Evans won in 20:36. None of the MPH boys runners had a top-10 finish.
