The Jordan-Elbridge cross country teams were involved in two close races against Skaneateles on its modified home course last Wednesday afternoon. 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 minutes, 42 seconds, 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.
As this went on, 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.
Now J-E and Marcellus both made their way to Saturday’s Baldwinsville Invitational, where in the Small School division the boys Eagles finished fourth out of 35 teams with 207 points and the Mustangs were fifth with 222 points as Port Byron won with 150 points.
Joe Riccardi led Marcellus and finished third in 15:54.5 behind Trumansburg’s Evan Whittaker (15:45.0) and Stokoe (15:153.6). Mosure was 25th in 16:54.2 as Grayson Hoag was 49th (17:39.4) and Burns finished in exactly 18 minutes.
But J-E proved more consistent, with Sean Dristle getting 18th place in 16:38.9 and Schader taking 32nd place in 17:12.5. Alpha (17:30.0) and Kinney (17:33.4) were just ahead of Hoag as Quigley got 65th place in 17:58.5, with Kenny Williams (18:11.5) close behind.
In the girls Small School meet at B’ville, Marcellus was eighth and J-E ninth in the 23-team field, with Gould again pacing the Mustangs as she gained 21st place overall (18th among team runners) in a time of 20:24.1.
Caron got a 32nd-place team finish (39th overall) in 21:23.9, four spots ahead of Carlic’s time of 21:39.1 as Strempel posted 21:48.5. J-E featured Theresa Dristle taking 27th place (24th among team runners) in 20:44 flat and Daly getting 32nd place in 21:01.8. Fichter was 56th in 22:21.8.
