It proved quite close when the Chittenango boys cross country team met up with Homer last Wednesday afternoon, but when all was done the Bears suffered a narrow 29-30 defeat to the Trojans.
Homer prevailed because it swept the top three individual spots, led by Grant Stokoe, who prevailed in 17 minutes, 12.9 seconds ahead of Teddy Mercer (17:38.3) and Andy Swenson (17:44.8).
Chittenango occupied the rest of the top 10, led by Karl Farber, who was fourth in 18:07.6 as Lucas Spiridilozzi got fifth place in 18:12.7.
They were narrowly ahead of Matt Morak, who finished sixth in 18:14.6 as Dave Gratien got seventh place in 18:20.7. Ersilio Cerminero finished eighth in 18:32.4 as Devlin Cameron (19:09.4) held off Caleb Seale (19:10.7) for ninth place.
In the girls race between Chittenango and Homer, it was all Bears as it had six of the seven fastest runners in the field during an 18-44 win over the Trojans.
McKenzie Dombroski prevailed in the individual race, her time of 21:47.6 well clear of teammate Chelsea Lamphere, who finished second in 22:16.7.
Homer’s Zoe Fish was third (22:38.2), but Chittenango’s McKayla Capeling was fourth in 23:47.1, closely followed by Devin Gordon in 23:50 as Eryn Thompson was sixth (24:17), two seconds ahead of Kiara Waite (24:19). Brooke Price (24:46) and Jada Sowich (24:48) also had top-10 finishes.
Chittenango ran again in Saturday’s Tully Invitational, finishing third among large schools with 62 points behind Whitesboro and West Genesee as Lamphere finished second among individuals in 21:35.8, behind only West Genesee’s Phoebe Knox (20:31.3).
Capeling made her way to fifth place in 22:26.2, with Gordon getting 12th place in 23:28.2.Price finished 21st in 24:12.3 as Thompson, in 28th place (24:59.1), finished just ahead of Maddy Heller (25:08.2), Laiah Emad (25:12.1) and Kayla Mendez (25:21.0).
