With its second-place showing in the top race at the Sept. 16 Wayne Invitational, the Liverpool girls cross country team moved up to no. 3 in the state Class A rankings, trailing only Fayetteville-Manlius and Niskayuna.
And the Warriors maintained that good form in its annual head-to-head race against Cicero-North Syracuse Wednesday at Oneida Shores, but though the Liverpool girls prevailed 19-39, the boys Northstars salvaged a split by winning 26-31 as each of the sides earned a sweep over a third team at the meet, Syracuse East.
The boys race would get decided by the depth C-NS (no. 15 in the state Class A rankings) displayed after Liverpool went 1-2 in the individual standings, Nathan Reeves earning the victory in 17 minutes, 15.5 seconds, just in front of T.J. Praschunus, who was second in 17:17.9.
John Perperian led the Northstars with a third-place time of 17:27.2. Sam Barber finished fourth, in 17:29.5, with Nathan Poirier fifth in 17:32.8 and David Ware getting sixth place in 17:34.6.
When the Warriors’ Cullen McLaughlin snared seventh place in 17:40.5, C-NS sealed the team victory when R.J. Davis made his way to eighth place in 17:51 and Lucas Sharron, in 18:00.2, beat out Liverpool’s Nick Brancato (18:02.6) for ninth place.
Meanwhile, in the girls race, Liverpool’s Jenna Schulz won again, her time of 19:49.7 just ahead of teammate Madison Neuner, who claimed second place in 19:50.8 as C-NS’s Mia Pestle grabbed third place in 19:54.8.
Natalie Kurz and Sydney Carlson helped the Warriors pull away as Kurz finished fourth in 20:14.1 and Carlson was right behind her, grabbing fifth place in 20:14.8.
Rosie Petrella was seventh in 21:10.7 to round out the scoring column for Liverpool as Isabella Brancato took ninth place in 21:53.1. The Northstars’ Sarah Davis finished sixth in 20:54.6, with Annina Marullo eighth in 21:24.1 as Ally Newton got 10th place in 22:04 flat.
