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 last 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.
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.
