It was time for the Liverpool and Cicero-North Syracuse cross country teams to have their annual head-to-head meet on Wednesday at Oneida Shores following a tough opening stretch for both sides.
For the girls Warriors, in particular, it was a time to feel quite confident after its second-place finish in Saturday’s Wayne Invitational, held on the same Wayne High School course that will host the New York State Public High School Athletic Association championship meet on Nov. 11.
Liverpool, no. 6 in the state Class A rankings, finished with 85 points in the Varsity Division I race, proving that it has significantly closed the gap on 10-time national champion Fayetteville-Manlius, who still won with 44 points, but did not completely dominate the meet like it has so often in the last decade.
Individually, Jenna Schulz needed 18 minutes, 40 seconds to finish third, just behind F-M’s Sophie Ryan (18:26) as Niskayuna seventh-grade sensation Abigail Spiers won in 18:06. Madison Neuner had a strong race, too, taking fifth place in 19 minutes flat as the Hornets’ Phoebe White was fourth in 18:57.
From there, it separated as F-M still placed its five best runners in the top 20, but the Warriors still had Natalie Kurz make it to 13th place in 19:55. Sydney Carlson finished 28th in 20:36, while Isabella Brancato was 39th in 21:03 as Rosie Petrella was 55th in 21:25.
In the boys Varsity Division I race at Wayne, Liverpool finished 11th in a 30-team field where, again, F-M was on top. For the Warriors, Nate Reeves took 16th place in 16:48, while Cullen McLaughlin was 42nd in 17:28, one second ahead of T.J. Praschunus (17:29). Carter Rodriguez (18:26), Ethan Glashauer (18:31), Spencer Ruediger (18:32) and Ben Zinger (18:45) were further back.
When it was the turn of C-NS to go up against the might of F-M last Wednesday afternoon, at least the girls Northstars did record a pair of top-10 finishes during its 15-50 defeat as Mia Pestle, in a time of 20:26.4, made her way to seventh place.
Sarah Davis finished 10th in 21:15.3 as F-M swept the top six spots, led by Palmer Madsen, whose time of 19:31.2 beat the field by nearly half a minute.
In the C-NS boys’ 15-50 defeat to F-M, none of the Northstars could crack the Hornets’ to nine, which was led by Peyton Geehrer and his top time of 17:15.1 over Matt Tripp (17:21.8). Only one Northstars runner made it to the top 10 as John Perperian finished in 17;51.8.
From there, C-NS went to Saturday’s East Syracuse Minoa Invitational, where the boys Northstars finished second among 26 teams with 77 points, trailing only Ithaca, who won with 50 points.
Ithaca had four of the top eight runners to overcome C-NS’s depth, including Silas Derfel, who won in a time of 16:37.7. Poirier got fifth place for the Northstars in 16:55.9, but he was the only top-10 finisher. Perperian got 11th place in 17:07.2, just ahead of Sam Barber, who was 13th in 17:08.5. David Ware finished 22nd in 17:37.2 as R.J. Davis was 30th in 17:48.7.
The C-NS girls were sixth in its portion of the ESM meet, even though Pestle made her way to fourth place in 19:18.8, not far from the winning 18:52.4 by CBA’s Olivia Morganti. Davis got 28th place in 21:10.3 as Annina Marullo was 40th in 21;36.1, ahead of Allison Newton in 45th place (21:48.9) as Maria Marullo (21:58.9) was 49th.
