With the Onondaga High School League Liberty American division championship at stake, the Westhill-Bishop Ludden girls cross country team responded to the pressure in a complete and comprehensive manner.
It took the depth of the state Class B no. 10-ranked Warriors to overcome a 1-2 finish by Cazenovia’s Clara Rowles and Meggie Hart and prevail, 25-36, Wednesday afternoon in a duel between the league’s top two sides.
Rowles indeed prevailed in a time of 17:03, with Hart (17:05) two seconds behind her in the runner-up spot. However, the next eight runners who crossed the finish line carried Westhill-Ludden colors.
Liz Kessler led that parade, rolling to a time of 17 minutes, 48 seconds, half a minute better than Haylei Coolican, who took fourth place in 18:18, while Alaina Kenny made her way to fifth place in 18:36.
Maura McAnaney led the next wave of Westhill-Ludden runners, getting to sixth place in 18:53. Kylie Nowicki was seventh, in 19:01, while Maddie Nowicki, in 19:22, beat out Meghan Evans (19:26) and Kendra MacCaull (19:29) for eighth place.
In the boys meet, Westhill-Ludden lost, 24-32, to Cazenovia, with Dan Washburn leading the Warriors, his time of 15:47 the same as the Lakers’ Jon Marecek, but still putting him in third place as Marecek got second place behind James McPherson, who won in 15:22.
Jake Suddaby, who was fifth in 16:18, was behind Cazenovia’s Brendan Coffey (15:53), but ahead of teammates Brendan Rewakowski (16:29) and Jack Mannion (16:35), though the Lakers’ Ian Marshall (16:36), Nick Barna (16:39) and Jacob Wells (16:42) rounded out the top 10 to keep the visitors in front.
West Genesee, who like Westhill-Ludden ran in the Oct. 8 Manhattan Invitational, was back in action four days later and sweeping Syracuse West.
For the state Class A no. 12-ranked girls Wildcats, who prevailed 15-48, Annaa Chwiejczak got a chance to run out front and won in 20:29 as stars like Mia Mitchell (20:41), Carly Benson (20:48) and Emily Young (20:54) followed.
Liz Baker was fifth in 21:20, beating out Syracuse West’s Jaelyn Howard (21:27) for that spot, while Liz Morey got seventh place in 21:31, leading another Wildcats pack that included Amanda Lowther (21:37), Kendall Dombroske (22:23) and Mikeayla DeJesus (22:38).
In the boys race, the duel between WG’s David Leff and Syracuse West’s Solomon Lawrence was the main attraction and did not disappoint, with Lawrence grabbing the victory in 16:51, seven seconds ahead of Leff’s 16:58.
However, WG won 20-39 because it swept the rest of the top six. Sean Byrnes, who finished third in 17:27.7, led a Wildcats pack that included Ryan Dunning (18:05), Paul Stannard (18:10) and Anthony Gettino (18:13) in the next three spots, while Patrick Trivison made it to 10th place in 18:54.
Jordan-Elbridge earned a sweep against Pulaski, the state Class C no. 24-ranked Eagles prevailing 22-36 in the boys meet and the girls beating the Blue Devils 18-43.
A close boys individual race saw J-E’s Hunter Brunelle prevail in 16:50 over Pulaski’s Ryan Morrissette (16:57), with Hugh Schader getting to third place in 17:05 ahead of the Blue Devils’ Dan Hefti (17:13) in fourth place.
Then J-E took over, starting with Evan Brunelle, who made it to fifth place in 17:19, inches ahead of Sean Dristle (17:20) at the line, while Ethan Kinney got seventh place in 17:24 and Matt Sheldon (17:43) finished eighth.
For the girls Eagles, Mary Elizabeth Dristle won the individual race in 21:02, beating out Madison Daly, who was second in 21:15. After Pulaski’s Ruthie Van der Heide finshed third (22:12), J-E’s Abby Skotinski and Olivia Minkheim (22:32) claimed the next two spots ahead of Delaney Dunham in sixth place (23:05) and Lindsay Jackson, who was seventh in 24:30. Meagan Skotinski, in 25:52, slid into 10th place.
Solvay lost both sides of its meet with Chittenango on Wednesday, falling 20-49 even though Jordyn Willsey, in a time of 20:29, dominated the race, beating the Bears’ Bailey Gordon (22:26) by nearly two full minutes. Kyra Crossett was seventh in 27:33, with Olivia Collins in ninth place.
In the boys race, Solvay lost to Chittenango, 15-50, with Jonah Wheeler posting the top time of 18:04, but that trailed seven Bears runners, led by Nango Abell, who in 17:11 edged Karl Farber (17:12) for the top spot.
