Liverpool’s cross country teams got close to sweeping that meet with West Genesee Wednesday afternoon at Camillus Middle School, but the girls Warriors, no. 20 in the latest state Class A rankings, could not quite catch the no. 17-ranked Wildcats in a 27-30 defeat.
Jenna Schulz won the individual girls race in a 19 minutes, 27 seconds, just ahead of WG’s Carly Benson, who finished in 19:34, while Madison Neuner (19:43) gained third place to keep the Warriors in front.
Emily Young got fourth place, in 19:51, and Mia Mitchell was right behind, finishing fifth in 19:56. But since Liverpool’s Vanessa Eberhard finished sixth in 20:07, the Wildcats still had to catch up with its other runners, and did so.
Of the next four finishers, only Natalie Kurz represented the Warriors as she took eighth place in 21:09. Hannah Craybas helped WG with a seventh-place finish in 20:41, but it took Amanda Lowther finishing ninth in 21:18 and Liz Baker getting 10th place in 21:23 for the Wildcats to overtake Liverpool.
With the no. 7 state Class A ranking, the Liverpool boys team handled West Genesee 20-37, even when the Wildcats’ David Leff won on his home course in Camillus in a time of 16:57, half a minute ahead of the Warriors’ Josh Hickmott (17:27) in second place.
Liverpool pulled away by having Ty Brownlow run to third place in 17:34, just ahead of Cullen McLaughlin, Emil Videman (17:36 each) and Stephen Schulz (17:37), with Gagenjot Sekhon gaining ninth place in 18:13.
Cicero-North Syracuse had its own league meet, against Syracuse West, and won both sides of it, prevailing 21-40 on the girls side but having to work harder in the boys meet to claim a 26-33 decision.
Though Syracuse West’s Jaelyn Howard won the girls race in 21:48, eight of the next nine spots all went to C-NS runners, starting with Sarah Davis, who finished second in 21:55 as Annina Marullo was third in 22:03.
Hailee Kolakowski, in a time of 22:33, held off Mia Pestle (22:35) for fourth place. Then Megan Trubia, in 24:48, led the next Northstars group that included Emily Dembowski and Headan Wilson (both finished in 24:49) and Leah Bisgrove, who was 10th in 25:31.
Meanwhile, the boys race involved Syracuse West’s Solomon Lawrence roaring to first place in 17:22 before Northstars runners claimed the next three spots. Nathan Poirier was second, in 18:05, holding off Sam Barber (18:07) for that spot as John Perperian finished fourth in 18:22.
After Syracuse West teammates Will Streissguth (18;28) and Alex MacKnight (18:35) finished fifth and sixth, respectively, a group of C-NS runners put the win away as Allen Garnes, Eric Bowen and David Ware each finished in 18:55 and Lucas Sharron (18:56) was close behind.
