One highlight of the West Genesee cross country season is the opportunity to match itself up against the nation’s best program in Fayetteville-Manlius.
That happened again Wednesday afternoon at Camillus Middle School, with the Wildcats making some inroads against the boys and girls Hornets, each of whom have the top state ranking in Class A.
WG’s girls lost, 18-43, to F-M, but Carly Benson was in contention all the way through the race as her time of 19 minutes, 14 seconds was just 10 seconds behind the winner, F-M’s Phoebe White, who in 19:04 held off Sophia Ryan (19:06) and Claire Walters (19:07) for that top spot. Emily Young made her way to sixth place in 19:36.
In the boys race, F-M swept the top five positions to beat West Genesee15-45, as Peyton Geehrer, in 17:03, beat out Jack Duncanson, Ben Otis and Sam Otis, who all posted 17:04 as Matt Tripp was fifth in 17:10.
However, WG did have its own strong group of runners, led by Sean Byrnes, who finished sixth in 17:12, edging out Matt Bartolotta, who got seventh place in 17:13. Tony Gettino had a ninth-place clocking of 17:49 and Patrick Trivison finished 10th in 18:03.
Marcellus took on Homer last Wednesday afternoon, and spit that race. The girls Mustangs defeated the Trojans 22-33 by nabbing four of the top five individual spots, led by Morgan Gould, who in a time of 22:24 was more than a minute ahead of Homer’s Zoe Fish (23:29) for individual honors.
Behind them, Carolyn Carlic, in 24:08, edged Mustangs teammate Madeline Caron (24:10) for third place, while Maggie Strempel was fifth in 25:02. Amy Franceconi clinched the victory with a ninth-place finish in 26:57.
Even with a state Class C no. 12 rankings, the Marcellus boys lost to Homer 23-32 because the Trojans had the three fastest runners of the day, Grant Stokoe winning in 17:25 over Teddy Mercer (17:41) and Andy Swenson (18:18).
It was Riley Burns leading the Mustangs’ pack, finishing fourth in 18:59, while Ethan Mosure got fifth place in 19:03. Nick Roseboom had a sixth-place time of 19:27 as Thomas Hoey was eighth in 19:50 and Kyle Stottler (20:11) gained ninth place.
Westhill-Bishop Ludden was no. 14 in the girls state Class B rankings going into last Wednesday’s meet against Chittenango, and the Warriors handled the Bears 17-46 as it swept the top four spots, Haylei Coolican winning the race in 19:12.
Maura McAnaney was second in 19:23, with Alaina Kenny third in 19:34 and Sarah Thompson getting fourth place in 19:53. Chittenango’s McKenzie Dombroski led her side and finished in 20 minutes flat, but Westhill-Ludden’s Kylie Nowicki (20:02), Kendra MacCaull (20:09) and Emily O’Reilly (20:32) were close behind as Zoe Fortin posted 20:54 to make the top 10.
In the boys race, Westhill-Ludden lost, 26-29, to Chittenango, despite the Warriors’ Jake Suddaby winning in 15:48 and Brendan Rewakowski getting second place in 15:58. Led by Ersilio Cerminero in third place (16:09), the Bears took five of the next six spots, only interrupted by Cade Van Ornam in seventh place (16:38) as Dan Washburn (16:46) beat out Alex Ladstatter (16:51) for ninth place.
Jordan-Elbridge was involved in two close races against Skaneateles on its modified home course. With every point counting, the Eagles swept it, the girls ending a long drought against the Lakers, by pulling out a 27-28 victory as the J-E boys won 25-30.
The girls race began with J-E’s Theresa Dristle winning the race in 17:42, nearly a minute ahead of Skaneateles’ Natalie Condon (18:41), while Madison Daly was third in 19:10 and Hannah Fitcher got fourth place in 19:12.
But the Lakers claimed the next four finishing spots, meaning that the Eagles needed to get the next two runners across the line to pull out the win – which it did as Olivia Minkheim posted 22:07 and Lindsay Jackson got 10th place in 22;58.
Moving to the boys race, Skaneateles did get a winning time of 14:43 from Luke Rathgeb, but J-E swept the next three spots as Sean Dristle, in 15:06, was second, with Hugh Schader (15:24) holding off Ethan Kinney (15:25) for third place. Jared Alpha was seventh in 15:35 as Derek Quigley, in ninth place in 15:50, helped the Eagles hang on.
