Each of the Chittenango cross country teams found themselves in a tough spot last Wednesday afternoon when they took on Westhill-Bishop Ludden, but the boys Bears, with a deeper lineup, emerged with a 26-29 victory over the Warriors.
Though Westhill-Ludden got a 1-2 finish from Jake Suddaby (15:48) and Brendan Rewakowski (15:58), Chittenango began to take over when Ersilio Cerminero finished third in a time of 16:09.
Karl Farber gained fourth place in 16:11, just ahead of Matt Morak (16:16) in fifth place as Lucas Spiridilozzi finished sixth in 16:26. Yet it took Dave Gratien posting an eighth-place time of 16:39 to help the Bears hang on.
On the girls side, Chittenango lost, 17-46, to Westhill-Ludden, as McKenzie Dombroski led the Bears with a time of 20 minutes flat, putting her fifth behind a quartet of Warriors that was led by Haylei Coolican, who won in 19:12. Chelsea Lamphere took ninth place in 20:44.
Then each of the Chittenango teams made their way to Saturday’s Queensbury Invitational, where the boys Bears finished fifth out of 17 Division I teams, led by Farber, who took 25th place in 17:28.06. Cerminaro was 31st in 17:34.61, with Morak, in 17:37.73, beating out Spiridilozzi (17:39.37) for 35th place. Gratien posted 18:25.14ahead of Caleb Seale (18:34.90) as Devlin Cameron posted 19:11.05.
In the girls Varsity I race at Queensbury, Chittenango was 13th, though Dombroski had a strong effort, taking 23rd place in 21:06.44 as Mikayla Capeling was 60th in 23:20.29 and Devin Gordon (23:32.92) was close behind. Kiara Waite (23:57.75), Brooke Price (24:32.83) and Jada Sowich (24:48.13) followed.
