Even though it had three of the top five finishers, the Skaneateles girls cross country team fell just short of a victory in last Wednesday’s meet against Hannibal at the Polo Grounds, falling by a single point to the Warriors 27-28.
As she has done most of the season, Julia Willcox led all individuals, tearing through the Polo Grounds course in 19 minutes, 16 seconds, half a minute better than Hannibal’s Reilly Harris, who was second in 19:46.
In a close battle for third place, the Lakers’ Natalie Condon won it, finishing in 20:28, just ahead of the Warriors’ Emily Weaver (20:36) as, trailing them, Maddy Brogan gave Skaneateles a fifth-place time of 20:53.
Hannibal pulled out the victory, though, by having McKenzie Mattison (21:58), Vanessa Waldron (22:29) and Erynn Harris (22:35) claim the sixth, seventh and eighth spots, respectively, in front of the Lakers’ Chloe Metz, who was ninth in 22:48 just ahead of Georgia McSwain (22:58) in 10th place.
From there, the girls Lakers went to Saturday’s Burnt Hills Invitational near Albany, where in the Division II race Willcox earned her best win of the season so far, posting a time of 18 minutes, 44.73 seconds to finish nearly four seconds ahead of Canton’s Grace Bessette (18:49.61) at the finish line.
Buoyed by Willcox’s winning effort, Skaneateles finished ninth out of 28 teams in Division II with 250 points. Saranac, with 140 points, took the top spot.
Among team runners, Condon made her way to 11th place (13th overall) with a clocking of 19:58.78. Brogan got 25th place in the team standings, and 27th overall, in 20:28.62 as McSwain finished in 22:49.54, ahead of Metz (23:17.50) and Hannah Atkinson, who posted 24:26.30.
