Never mind the small size of its roster or its relative youth – the Christian Brothers Academy girls cross country team are literal and figurative giants.
The six girls on the Brothers’ roster would face, and conquer, all challengers and earn the program’s first-ever Section III championship Saturday in the Class C meet at Chittenango High School.
CBA would fall behind Clinton, and then utilize everyone on its roster to make up the deficit until, with 59 points, it pulled ahead of the Warriors’ total of 66 points. Marcellus finished third with 84 points and Cazenovia (92 points) was fourth.
Indeed, Clinton did get the winning effort from Eva Borton in 18 minutes, 59.9 seconds, and, with Gabrielle Dewhurst (third, 19:47.1) and Emma Novak (fifth, 20:20.6), get a trio in front of CBA’s pack.
Yet when eighth-grader Deja Jones crossed the line in 20 minutes, 24.4 seconds, it began a rush that continued with freshman Lea Kyle getting to seventh place in 20:39.4 and sophomore Cory Knox finishing 11th in 20:54.4.
When sophomore Bri Pucci finished 16th in 21:32.9 and junior Lucy Person got 19th place in 21:59.7, it clinched the sectional title because, other than its top trio, Clinton’s fastest runner, Piper Davignon, could only finish 22nd in 22:14.8. Right behind her, CBA junior Claire Bargabos got 23rd place in 22:15.9.
And while CBA’s girls basked in their landmark victory, the CBA boys added another sectional Class C title an hour later when senior Dominic Morganti roared to the finish line in 16 minutes, 42 seconds, well clear of second-place Adam VanValkenburgh, from Canastota, who finished in 17:00.6.
So Morganti will join the girls team as they all head to Chenango Valley State Park for this Saturday’s state championship meet. part of a Section III All-Star team with VanValkenburgh, James McPherson (Cazenovia), C.J. Militello (Clinton) and Chris Celecki (Holland Patent).
Meanwhile, in the sectional Class B meets at Chittenango, Jamesville-DeWitt saw its girls team finish second in Class B behind Westhill-Bishop Ludden, the Red Rams getting 50 points to the Warriors’ 41, though J-D did finish on top of the Class B-1 division.
Hannah Butler easily won the individual Class B race, her time of 19 minutes, 16.6 seconds putting her nearly half a minute ahead of Camden seventh-grade phenom Elizabeth Lucason (19:43.1). By finishing fourth in 19:58.5, Sophia Vinciguerra joined Butler in qualifying for the state meet with Lucason, New Hartford’s Brianna Wilbur and Camden’s Morgan Lucason.
Abby Palin was 13th, and fifth in the B-1 standings, in 21:02.4, just ahead of Megan Brown, who finished in 21:04.8. Amelia Gilbert was ninth in the B-1 race and 18th overall in 21:20.1 as Lily Dougherty posted 21:29.2 for 10th ploace in B-1 (19th overall) and Abigail Leavitt (22:12.3) was 14th in B-1 and 28th overall.
In the boys sectional Class B race, J-D’s Patrick Dye advanced to the state meet by finishing second in a time of 16:29.8, just behind New Hartford’s Josh Farmer, who won in 16:26.4 to help guide the Spartans to the team sectional title.
Meanwhile, East Syracuse Minoa freshman Nick Berg finished sixth in 16:49 flat,and since he was fifth in the group outside of New Hartford, he also made it to the state meet, joining Dye, Owen Walker (Vernon-Verona-Sherrill), Kenneth Deloff (Fulton) and Brian Lamonica (Camden) on the sectional team.
On the team side, J-D’s boys were third in Class B-1 and fourth overall. Fidel Martinez was 11th in B-1 and 20th overall in 17:54.3, two spots ahead of Luke Hobicka (18:08.4) in the B-1 standings. Kaleel Boykins, in 18:35.3, beat out Ahviere Reese (18:36.8) for 24th place in B-1 as Alan Gao posted 18:42.4 and Nick Mannion finished in 18:47.8.
ESM had Jared Henry finish 10th in the overall Class B standings, and sixth in B-1, with a clocking of 17:36.1. The Spartans were seventh in the team standings and fourth in B-1 as David Rivers finished 17th among B-1 runners in 18:15.2, with Nolan Byrd 21st in that division in 18:29.2 ahead of Michael Sanders (19:20.9), Nate Castor (19:27.2) and Mike Nesci (19:32.0).
On the girls side, ESM was third among Class B-1 teams and sixth overall in a 15-team field, led by Marina Lopez, who finished 16th in the B-1 standings, and 34th overall, in 22:24.3, while Julia Schug was 19th in B-1 (41st overall) in 22:36.1.
Behind them, the Spartans’ Isabella Talarico gained 24th place in the B-1 standings in a time of 23:20.3, three spots ahead of Sarah Tingley (23:41.4) on the B-1 side. Madison Carr was 35th in B-1 in 25:50.2 and April Hathaway (25:56.6) gained 37th place.
