Add an 11th consecutive New York State Public High School Athletic Association Class A championship to the long and illustrious ledger created by the Fayetteville-Manlius girls cross country team.
Placing all five of its fastest runners within the top 20, the Hornets finished with 35 points to pull away from Section I’s North Rockland (65 points) and again sped to the top of the standings in Saturday’s state meet at Chenango Valley State Park.
Two freshmen – Claire Walters and Phoebe White – continued to lead F-M. Walters posted a time of 17 minutes, 45.8 seconds to finish fifth among individuals as Saratoga Springs’ Kelsey Chmiel won in a course-record 17:17.5, while White got to fifth place in 17:57.4.
Junior Sophie Ryan was seventh in the race and sixth in the team standings in 18:14.7, while fellow Hornets junior Palmer Madsen got to 11th place overall, and eighth in the team race, in 18:20.4.
When junior Rebecca Walters crossed the finish line in 18:33.5 to take 16th place overall and 11th in the team standings, F-M had clinched the state crown. Behind them, senior Reilly Madsen finished 40th in the team standings in 20:20.1, half a second ahead of junior Alex Villalba (20:20.6), who had a 41st-place team finish.
But the girls Hornets were not alone in finding success at Chenango Valley. F-M’s trio of boys runners were part of a Section III team that won its state championship race with 251 points, beating out Section IV (296 points) for those honors.
Patrick Perry led the Hornets as the senior posted a time of 15:39.4 for seventh place. Another senior, Joe Walters, made his way to 19th place in 16:05.1 as junior Ben Otis was 34th in 16:19.5.
Liverpool, who finished third in the team Class A standings, saw Ty Brownlow win the state individual championship in 15:27.5, with the Warriors’ Steve Schulz fourth in 15:32.1.
To help Perry, Walters and Otis finish atop the team standings, Rome Free Academy’s Davone Hernandez got to sixth place in 15:39.1 as West Genesee’s David Leff was 18th in 16:14.7.
Meanwhile, in the state girls Class C race, Christian Brothers Academy, making its state tournament debut, finished fourth out of 11 teams with 122 points as Newfane (Section VI) won with 75 points.
Deja Jones led the Brothers as she finished 25th overall, and eighth among team runners, in a time of 20:06.2. Lea Kyle got to 12th place in the team standings (33rd overall) with a clocking of 20:22.4.
Behind them, Cory Knox grabbed 21st place in the team race and 50th overall in 20:39.5. Claire Bargabos was 33rd in the team race in 21:22.6 as Lucy Person was 48th in 22:00.7 and Bri Pucci was 50th in 22:05.2.
Two hours later, in the boys Class C race, CBA senior Dominic Morganti nearly won a state championship of his own. In 15 minutes, 53.2 seconds, Morganti beat everyone except Briarcliff’s Ryan Gallagher, who won in 15:40.7.
Yet another local top-five finish went to Jamesville-DeWitt senior Patrick Dye in the boys state Class B race, Dye finishing in 16:07.3 for fifth place, not far from the winning 15:30.3 posted by Pittsford Mendon’s Nathan Lawler. East Syracuse Minoa freshman Nick Berg was 43rd in his state meet debut in 16:55.2.
J-D also had a pair of girls runners on hand for the state meet. Senior Hannah Butler made her way to 20th place in the girls Class B race in 19:15.2, while sophomore Sophia Vinciguerra finished 72nd in 20:42.7.
