While the Liverpool boys cross country team will chase Fayetteville-Manlius all the way to the Nov. 5 Section III Class A championships at Chittenango High School, Stevie Schulz and Ty Brownlow still find everyone is chasing them, at least from an individual standpoint.
The Warriors’ senior duo are solid favorites to advance to the Nov. 12 state meet at Chenango Valley in the wake of their 1-2 finish at Wednesday’s CNY Counties League championship race at Baldwinsville.
Over the B’ville course that weaves around Durgee Junior High School, Schulz posted a time of 15 minutes, 23.8 seconds, just ahead of Schulz, who finished in 15:26 flat for second place as F-M’s Patrick Perry got third place in 15:35.7 and another Liverpool senior, Josh Hickmott, finished fifth in 15:54.8.
Despite this, the state no. 2-ranked Hornets, with 41 points, finished in front of the state no. 8-ranked Warriors, who had 52 points, because it had five of the top 13 finishers in Perry, Ben Otis (sixth, 15:59.4), Jack Boltman (seventh, 16:12.0), Matt Tripp (12th, 16:25.7) and Joe Walters (13th, 16:27.0).
By contrast, Schulz, Brownlow and Hickmott were Liverpool’s lone top-15 finishers, as junior Emil Videman was 19th in the team standings, and 20th overall, in 16:38.1, with junior Cullen McLaughlin 25th on the team side (32nd overall) in 17:04 flat.
Two Warriors sophomore ran together as Dawson Newbern (17:22.2) beat out Nathan Reeves (17:22.9) for 43rd place, while junior Ben Zinger was 50th in 17:32.6 and sophomore T.J. Praschmus got 54th place in 17:39.2.
Meanwhile, Cicero-North Syracuse was fourth in the seven-team CNYCL standings with 110 points despite sophomore Nathan Poirier’s strong run as he finished 10th in a clocking of 16:24.4.
Sam Barber was 23rd in the team standings (28th overall) in 16:58 flat, half a second ahead of Eric Bowen (16:58.5), while Brandon Martin was 33rd overall (26th in the team race) in 17:04.5. David Ware (17:06.4) beat out Jason Hughes (17:10.5) for 27th in the team race as Lucas Sharron (17:13.3) and John Perperian (17:13.8) ran together, too.
In the girls CNYCL race at Baldwinsville, state Class A no. 14-ranked Liverpool, with top-10 runs from freshman Jenna Schulz and senior Vanessa Eberhard, got to third place in the team standing with 76 points, just behind state no. 13-ranked West Genesee (64 points) for the runner-up spot as no. 1-ranked F-M (15 points) swept all the top honors.
Schulz ran to a time of 18 minutes, 15.2 seconds, tops among all runners outside of F-M, who swept the top five as Sophie Ryan won in 17:29.7, while Eberhard needed 18:42.9 to earn 10th place and sophomore Madison Neuner was 13th in 18:59.5.
Behind them, another Warriors 10th-grader, Windsor Ardner, went 20:00.4 to finish 23rd among team runners (26th overall), just ahead of junior Natalie Kurz (20:01.1) in the standings. Ninth-graders Isabella Brancato (20:25.7) and Rosie Petrella (20:45.1) recorded top-35 finishes as Mallory Woytowicz was 42nd (20:54.7) and Sarah Sedlock (21:32.3) got 55th place.
C-NS, who was fifth in the team standings with 114 points, had junior Annina Marullo lead the way, taking 15th place in a clocking of 19:11 flat, while Northstars sophomore Sarah Davis was 18th in the team standings (20th overall) in 19:34.4 and 10th-grader Emily Dembowski finished in 19:49 flat for 21st in the team race, 23rd overall.
Leah Bisgrove made her way to 34th place in 20:33.4, two spots clear of Mia Pestle (20:37.5) in 36th place. Headan Wilson (20:59.1), Maria Marullo (21:25.7) and Mia Falgiatano (21:45.0) ran behind them.
