A decade ago, the Fayetteville-Manlius girls cross country team flew across America in pursuit of some history, and came home as national champions.
Nine more national titles later, what once seemed extraordinary has turned routine. But it should not diminish the accomplishment – rather, the depth of what the Hornets have achieved only grows more astonishing.
F-M left each of other 21 teams in the field for Saturday’s Nike Cross Nationals at the Glendoveer Golf Course in Portland, Oregon far behind them, scoring 41 points to the runner-up total of 181 points by Davis (California), who edged another California squad, Temecula (184 points), for the runner-up spot.
None of the seven individual F-M runners expected to challenge for the individual title, which was claimed by Brie Oakley (Southwest, Colorado) in a time of 17 minutes, 10.1 seconds.
So the young Hornets lineup focused on pushing each other to their best individual efforts, which in turn lifted the entire lineup far beyond all of their challengers. In the end, the top five F-M finishers were all within less than a minute of each other and broke the 19-minute mark on the hilly 3.1-mile course at Glendoveer.
Freshman Claire Walters would lead the charge, as she finished 20th in the individual standings with a time of 18:05.7, second among all team runners behind Ember Stratton, who was second overall in 17:38.2.
Walters was nine spots ahead of junior Sophia Ryan, who posted 18:19.3 and was the third-place finisher among team runners. Another F-M ninth-grader, Phoebe White, worked her way to 37th place in 18:30.2, seventh in the team standings.
And the clinching efforts came from senior Reilly Madsen and junior Rebecca Walters, who hit the line together, Madsen posting 18:50.5 for 51st place and Walters 52nd in 18:54.2. They were 14th and 15th, respectively, among team runners. Palmer Madsen crossed the finish line in 19:39.8, just ahead of fellow junior Alex Villalba, who finished in 20:17.8.
Even with a 10th national title in the books, do not expect anything close to a drop-off, either. With just one senior (Reilly Madsen) among his top seven runners, head coach Bill Aris is counting on adding an 11th national title in 2017 and plenty more to follow.
Meanwhile, the F-M boys cross country team also competed at the Nike Nationals, finishing 19th out of 22 schools in the team standings as Section III Class A champion Liverpool took ninth place and Bozeman (Montana) won with 105 points.
Individually, Patrick Perry finished 51st in a time of 16:26.2 (18th place in the team standings) to pace the Hornets. Joe Walters took 91st place in 16:49.1, just ahead of Ben Otis, who finished in 16:58 flat. Matt Tripp finished in a clocking of 17:48.2 as Jack Boltman (18:10.2) was inches ahead of Eli Capri (18:10.7) at the line.
