In their own ways, the Marcellus boys and Westhill-Bishop Ludden girls cross country teams propelled themselves to first place during Wednesday’s Onondaga High School League Liberty division championships at Long Branch Park.
It was a close competition at the top for the boys title, with Marcellus, no. 4 in the state Class C rankings, needing 49 points to fend off Chittenango, who was second with 53 points. Westhill-Ludden was fourth with 123 points and Jordan-Elbridge (146 points) got fifth place in the 12-team field.
Individually, the Mustangs’ Joe Ricccardi took third place in 17 minutes, 25.7 seconds, not far from the winning 17:10 flat posted by CBA’s Dominic Morganti as Matt Strempel gave Marcellus a fifth-place finish in 17:33.0.
Since Chittenango had four of the top 12 runners, led by Mike Capeling (17:30.9) in fourth place, the Mustangs needed to answer, and did so. Ethan Mosure made it to 10th place in a clocking of 17:47.1, while Sean Raymond was 15th in 18:04.7 and Michael Brown, in 16th place (18:06.5), clinched the team title. Andrew Marsh was 27th in 18:26.8.
Meanwhile, Westhill-Ludden’s Dan Washburn made it to seventh place in 17:41 flat. Jake Suddaby gave the Warriors a 20th-place time of 18:19.6 as Brendan Rewakowski was 24th in 18:23.8. Jack Savage was 34th in 18:46 flat, just ahead of Jack Mannion (18:51.7), Cade Van Ornam (18:52.6) and Jacob Fricano (18:59.3).
J-E saw Ethan Kinney make his way to 17th place in a time of 18:07.4. His was the Eagles’ lone top-25 effort as Hugh Schader got 29th place in 18:35.3. Hunter Brunelle was 36th in 18:56.4 as Evan Brunelle was 44th in exactly 19 minutes, two spots ahead of Matt Sheldon (19:01.2).
Solvay got its best run from Jonah Wheeler, who made it to 65th place (60th among team runners) in 19:42.9, but the Bearcats had 362 points overall as John Brusa (20:43.9), Max Melnyk (21;25.1), Adam Delucia (21:31.7) and Tim Brusa (22:19.6) followed.
The girls OHSL Liberty meet belonged to Westhill-Ludden, who as the no. 10 team in the state Class B rankings won a showdown with state Class C no. 2-ranked CBA, earning 43 points to the Brothers’ 61, with Marcellus (102 points) fourth and J-E fifth with 124 points.
It was key for Westhill-Ludden’s Liz Kessler, who was third in 19:57 flat, and Haylei Coolican, who was fourth in 19:58.5, to finish ahead of the CBA trio of Lea Kyle (sixth), Cory Knox (seventh) and Deja Jones (eighth), and then let its superior depth make the difference.
Alaina Kenny began the Warriors’ winning charge when she finished 11th in 20:56.8. Kylie Nowicki got 13th place, in 21:03.2, and when Maura McAnaney crossed the line in 16th place (21:27.5) and Maddie Nowicki was 18th (21:33.0), the league title was won. Kendra MacCaull was 25th in 22:06.1 and Carmella Carr got 30th place in 22:38.2.
In order to finish fourth, Marcellus needed Liliana Cushman to run to ninth place in 20:43.4, just ahead of Solvay’s Jordyn Willsey (20:54.2) in 10th place, while Morgan Gould got 12th place in 21:00.4. Crystal Silliman earned 23rd place in 21:58.9 as Maggie Strempel (22:56.2) beat out Caroline Carlic (23:00.6) for 34th place.
Madison Daly paced J-E as she got to 15th place in 21;24.8, just ahead of Mary Elizabeth Dristle (21:34.2) in 19th place. Theresa Dristle made it to 26th place in 22:08.7 as Olivia Minkheim, in 40th place (23:23.4), was two spots ahead of Delaney Dunham (23:33.1) as Abby Skotinski finished in 23:45 flat.
A day earlier, West Genesee finished its regular season with Senior Day recognition prior to its race against Syracuse East, which resulted in a Wildcats sweep by a 15-50 margin on the girls side and a 15-49 margin on the boys side.
WG’s girls team, no. 13 in the latest state Class A rankings, swept the entire top 10, led by Carly Benson, who dipped under the 20-minute mark in the unseasonably warm conditions and won in a time of 19:58.7, with Mia Mitchell second in 20:08 flat.
Hannah Craybas, in 20:53.4. edged Emily Young (20:53.7) for third place, with Liz Morey fifth in 21:35.8. Kendall Dombroske made it to sixth place in 22:10.7, holding off Liz Baker (20:17.0) as Emma Farmer (22:36.3), Amanda Lowther (23:00.6) and Mikeayla DeJesus (23:10.7) rounded out the top 10.
As he had done all season, David Leff ran away from the rest of his WG boys teammates, finishing in 16 minutes, 29.5 seconds. It was a lot closer behind Leff as Ryan Dunning, in 18:21.8, edged out Sean Byrnes (18:22.2) for second place.
Following them, Sean O’Brien gained fourth place in 18:36.6, inches ahead of Paul Stannard (18:36.9) in fifth place and Pat Trivison (18:37.1) in sixth place. Anthony Gettino was eighth in 18:43 flat, ahead of Matt Bartolatta (18:50.4) and Jack Richards (19:22.5).
Both West Genesee teams would flourish on Saturday at the Marathon Invitational, with the girls team sweeping to both Large School and overall team honors, claiming the latter with 36 points to runner-up Fairport’s 95 points.
Mitchell would have her star turn as she won the individual race in 20:15.8, well clear of Maine-Endwell’s Alison Otis (20:28.7) in second place, while Young finished third in 20:32.4. Benson took eighth place in 20:53.3 as Baker needed 21;13.1 to finish 11th, just ahead of Dombroske (21:14.4) in 13th place and Morey (21:15.6) in 15th place.
Also for WG, Leff won the boys Marathon Invitational in a time of 16:40.9, holding off Fairport’s Majd Rouhana (16:44.7) for that top spot as Byrnes finished ninth in 17:30.9 and the boys team finished fourth among large schools, sixth overall.
