For its first Onondaga High School League Liberty division meet of the fall, each of the Skaneateles cross country teams would welcome Christian Brothers Academy and Altmar-Parish-Williamstown to the Polo Grounds course.
Thanks to its depth, the boys Lakers swept both sides of its meet, pushing past the Brothers 24-33 as it also handled the Rebels 15-49, all of it led by Luke Rathgeb, whose time of 18 minutes, 18 seconds topped CBA’s Riley Nash (18:40) by 22 seconds.
Though the Brothers’ Zach Medicis finished third in 19:18, the Lakers’ Joe Norris and Caleb Bender were right behind, Norris finishing fourth in 19:19 and Bender taking fifth place in 19:20. Nate Azzam was sixth in 19:32 and Nick Paciorek was seventh in 19:41 as Tyler Lewis got 10th place in 20:21.
In the girls meet, Skaneateles had no trouble beating APW 18-49, but CBA, the state’s no. 4-ranked Class C side, prevailed over the Lakers 16-43 by sweeping the top four finishing spots.
Natalie Condon led Skaneateles as she finished fifth in 22:09, just behind CBA’s Cory Knox (22:04) as Olivia Morganti won for the Brothers in 19:42, well clear of teammates Deja Jones (21:07) and Lea Kyle (21:31). Georgia McSwain finished seventh for Skaneateles in 24:17 as Nicole DeRosa got eighth place in 24:58.
Both Skaneateles sides would venture to Saturday’s East Syracuse Minoa Invitational, where in the boys race Rathgeb was one of the top performers, making it all the way to ninth place in a time of 17:04.1. Jacob Burgher, the next-fastest Lakers runner, was more than four minutes behind in 21:29.2.
The Skanetales girls finished 13th in a 21-team field at ESM again topped by CBA and Morganti, who won the race in 18:52.4 as McSwain finished 55th for the Lakers in 22:18.7 and Condon was 56th in 22:33.2.
