While the Fayetteville-Manlius girls cross country team has taken permanent residence atop the state Class A rankings, the boys Hornets have not always followed suit.
However, the F-M boys’ domination of the Sept. 8 Vernon-Verona-Sherrill Invitational was cause enough to put them atop the first state Class A poll of this season, and it celebrated by sweeping past Cicero-North Syracuse 15-50 last Wednesday afternoon.
Peyton Greeher led the Hornets as he posted a time of 17 minutes, 15.1 seconds, getting away from teammate Matt Tripp, who was second in 17:21.8 as part of a top-nine Hornets sweep.
Ben Otis got third place in 17:37.3 as Geoff Howles, the individual champion at VVS, and Jack Duncanson both finished in 17:37.7. Sam Otis finished in 17:37.9 and Max Perry posted 17:38.1 as Sam Theofaris, in 17:43.4, beat out Eli Capri (17:48.2) for eighth place.
F-M’s girls did its work, too, blasting C-NS 15-49 as it swept the top six spots, led by Rebecca Walters, who crossed the finish line in 19:31.2, well clear of the field as Palmer Madsen, in 19:55 flat, edged Isabel Crovella (19:55.8) for second place.
Sophia Ryan was fourth, in 19:58.8, edging out Phoebe White (19:59.1) and Claire Walters (19:59.3) for that spot, while Alex Villalba and Grace Kaercher also recorded top-10 finishes as Villalba was eighth in20:48.1 and Kaercher finished ninth in 20:55.4.
Christian Brothers Academy’s girls team, no. 4 in the first state Class C rankings this season, swept its OHSL Liberty division opener at Skaneateles, topping the host Lakers 18-43 and also beating Altmar-Parish-Williamstown 15-49.
Olivia Morganti tore through the Skaneateles Polo Grounds in 19:42, more than a minute ahead of Deja Jones, who was second in 21:07. Lea Kyle was third in 21:31 and Cory Knox, in 22:04, edged Skaneateles’ Natalie Condon (22:09) for fourth place. Bri Pucci was sixth in 22:36 and Annie Toole (25:15) finished ninth.
CBA’s boys team beat APW 16-49, but lost 24-33 to Skaneateles as Riley Nash was second in 18:40 and Zach Medicis third in 19:18 behind the Lakers’ Luke Rathgeb, who won in 18:18, Four Skaneateles runners followed, led by Joe Norris (19:19) and Caleb Bender (19:20), as CBA got Adam Kantor to finish eighth in 20:09.
Bishop Grimes split its meet with Onondaga and Fabius-Pompey, beating the Falcons 15-50 but falling to the Tigers 18-39. Alicia Kelly finished fourth among individuals in a time of 25:10, with Nell DeChick eighth in 28:43 as Julia Avery (28:51) got ninth place.
Robbie Finger was third in the boys race in a time of 21:37 as John Kane finished seventh in 23:15, but Grimes lost sides of the meet to F-P and OCS by 15-50 margins as the Tigers’ Dylan Price, in 19:09, beat the field by more than a minute.
East Syracuse Minoa’s boys team met Cortland last Wednesday, with Spartans prevailing 24-31. On a short course, Nick Berg finished second in 13:54 behind the Purple Tigers’ Andy Ryan (13:30), with David Rivers, in 14:25, beating out Nolan Byrd (14:32) for third place. Michael Sanders was sixth in 15;33 and Casey Engineri was ninth in 15:51.
