With big contributions from West Genesee’s Emily Young, Mia Mitchell and David Leff, both of the Section III teams prevailed in their respective Class A races during Saturday’s New York State Public High School Athletic Association championships at Chenango Valley State Park.
Leff’s senior season was capped by posting a time of 16 minutes, 4.7 seconds and finishing 18th in a field of 107 runners, surrounded by plenty of his local rivals throughout the autumn.
Section III, with 251 points, held off Section IV (296 points) as Liverpool’s Ty Brownlow won the individual title in 15:27.5, with teammates Stephen Schulz fourth and Josh Hickmott 11th.
As for Leff’s sectional All-Star teammates, Rome Free Academy’s Davone Hernandez was sixth in 15:39.1, inches ahead of Fayetteville-Manlius’ Patrick Perry (15:39.4) in seventh place, while the Hornets’ Joe Walters was 18th in 16:05.1, just four-tenths of a second behind Leff, and Ben Otis was 34th in 16:19.5.
Earlier, in the girls state Class A championship race, Young and Mitchell were part of a Section III group that, with 224 points, pulled away from Section II (319 points) atop the team standings.
Young, a junior, finished 36th in 19 minutes, 13.1 seconds, while Mitchell, a freshman, got 64th place in 19:49.6. Up ahead of them, Liverpool freshman Jenna Schulz was 10th in 18:19.2 and Baldwinsville’s Justus Holden-Betts was 32nd in 19:03.3 as Schulz’s Warriors teammate, Madison Neuner, got 39th place in 19:17.6.
Meanwhile, in the boys state Class C championship race, Marcellus made its way to fifth place in an 11-team field with 130 points, just seven points behind fourth-place Irvington (123 points). Watkins Glen won with 21 points.
Senior Matt Strempel led the Mustangs, finishing 18th among team runners, and 34th overall, in 17:15.8. Junior Ethan Mosure was five spots behind Strempel, finishing 43rd overall (23rd team) in 17:27.5.
Another Marcellus junior, Joe Riccardi, was 26th in the team race (49th overall) in 17:33.8, while senior Sean Raymond was 30th in the team race (56th overall) in 17:38.6. Senior Michael Brown got to 33rd place in the team standings in 17:48.4 as senior Andrew Marsh finished in 18:10 flat and sophomore Grayson Hoag posted 19:09.9.
Westhill-Bishop Ludden, the girls Section III Class B team champions, was sixth among 11 sides in the state championship race with 153 points, with Long Island’s Shoreham-Wading River (51 points) beating John Jay-Cross River (68 points) for the top spot.
Among the individual Warriors’ runners, sophomore Haylei Coolican fared best, finishing 20th in the team standings (36th overall) in a clocking of 19:51.7, with freshman Liz Kessler close behind as she got 23rd place in the team race (41st overall) in 19:57.4.
Sophomore Maddie Nowicki gave Westhill-Ludden a 27th-place team finish (54th overall) in 20:08.9, Eighth-grader Kylie Nowicki was 39th in the team race in 20:52.8, with Alaina Kenny (20:58.7) two spots ahead of fellow junior (21:00.7) as sophomore Kendra McCaull finished in 22:11.1.
