The undefeated Cazenovia boys cross country team traveled to Marcellus Wednesday afternoon for an OHSL Liberty American division dual meet against the Mustangs, who were also undefeated and ranked no. 8 in the latest state Class C poll.
Despite the quality of the opposition, the Lakers ran a very strong race on the Marcellus home course, arguably one of the toughest courses in the league. The course is dominated by several steep hills which forms the letter M through the wooded area behind the schools.
Lakers Jon Marecek, James McPherson and Brendan Coffey set the pace and led the race for a considerable period of time, but the depth of the Marcellus team prevailed and the Lakers suffered its first league loss of the season – though the final score was a very respectable 26-32. The Lakers are now 4-1.
The overall winner was Marcellus Junior Joe Riccardi with a time of 16 minutes, 53 seconds. McPherson was close behind, finishing second in 16:55. And just behind them were Jon Marecek, who was third in 17:03, and Brendan Coffey, who was fifth in 17:18.
Marcellus won because it gained the fourth spot with Matt Strempell (17:14) and the sixth through ninth spots with Ethan Mosure (17:44), Andrew Marsh (17:49), Michael Brown (17:53) and Riley Burns (18:01).
For the Lakers, running their best race of the season were Ian Marshall (10th, 18:03) and Jacob Wells (14th, 18:23). Rounding out the squad, Nick Barna was 15th in 18:26 and Zach Wendell was 17th in 19:32, each of them running outstanding races.
Other strong finishes by the Lakers included Sam Galasso (20:35), John Henry Light-Olson (21:03), Carson Clonan (21:05), Cormac Race (21:14), Chris Stevens (21:19) Elliot Hale (21:48), Andrew Peterson (22:14), Ted Williams (23:02), Justin Ossont (23:17), Sam Stehle (23:35), Alex Rodriguez (23:41), Griffin Monahan (23:46), Andrew Ryan (24:30), Felix Schnittler (25:42), Dalton Sevier (28:17), Luke Hudson (28:34), Tim Gibbons (30:00) and Hunter McCullough (30:00).
Coach Jason Hyatt was very pleased with the efforts of the Lakers despite the loss. He continues to praise the teams’ strong running abilities and week to week improvement of each runner.
McPherson has established himself as one of the elite runners of Section 3 Class C. He ran his second consecutive race in under 17 minutes and finished two seconds behind Riccardi, who is currently ranked fourth in Class C.
The Lakers were scheduled to race in the Disney Cross Country Classic in Orlando, Florida this weekend, but Hurricane Matthew thwarted the team’s chance to run against quality teams from throughout the country and the race was canceled.
Next up for Cazenovia is the final league dual meet at Westhill-Bishop Ludden on Wednesday as the Lakers look to secure a second-place league finish.
