Back on Wednesday afternoon the Cazenovia boys cross country team began their league meet season against Jordan-Elbridge. The race was held at Fenner Field and both teams entered the race state ranked in Class C – the Lakers at no. 14, the Eagles at no. 18.
The Lakers won, 21-38, over J-E as Jimmy McPherson was the overall winner of the race with a time of 17 minutes, 21 seconds. Teammate Jon Marecek was second, just four seconds behind in 17:35. J-E’s top runner, Sean Dristle, finished third in 18:03.
Nick Barna was fifth in 18:47, with Zach Wendell sixth in 18:48 and Noah DeRoche rounding out the scoring column as he got seventh place in 18:51. They were followed, on the Lakers’ side, by Ian Marshall (18:52), Jack Gabor (19:24), Stanley Angus (19:32), Tony K oppers (19:56), Jared Smith (20:48) and Jacob Buckley (21:19).
The race was exciting and close for the first two miles. The four-man leading group included McPherson, Marecek, Dristle and J-E’s Ethan Kinney. After the first two miles, McPherson and Marecek were too strong for the top Eagles runners and subsequently pulled away.
This race; however, was solidified by Cazenovia’s third through sixth runners who ran the entire race in a pack. J-E’s third through fifth runners led the Cazenovia pack for the first half of the race and appeared to have a sizeable lead.
That pack, consisting of Barna, Wendell, DeRoche, and Marshall, kept a steady and determined pace throughout the race and overcame the J-E runners to seal the team win.
Cazenovia’s finishers included Carson Clonan (21:31), Sean Smithers (21:32), Elliot Hale (22:12), Torin Monahan (22:18), Chris Stevens (22:20), Alex Rodriguez (22:23), Hunter McCullough (22:41), Justin Ossont (24:13), Dalton Sevier (24:32), Brice Hodges (25:16), Aidon Coffey (25:50), Mitch Ponzer (26:28), Andrew Ryan (26:30), Eric Groff (26:43), Andrew Peterson (26:44), Sam Stehle (26:44), Griffin Monahan (27:19), Max Beam (29:39), Aeden Berson (29:48), Isaac Walburger (30:00), Tom McCay (30:02), Hunter Marshall (31:27) and Adam Thompson (42:29).
Three days later, at the East Syracuse Minoa Invitational, Cazenovia finished seventh in a 26-team field, earning 215 points. Mostly this was due to McPherson and Marecek’s top-20 finishes as McPherson, in 17:26.7, edged Marecek I17:27 flat) for 16th place. Wendel was 63rd in 18;52 flat, just ahead of Marshall (18;53.3) and DeRoche (18:53.7).
