Having climbed to no. 2 in the state Class A rankings, the Liverpool girls cross country team are assured of staying there following its impressive effort at last Saturday’s Manhattan Invitational.
Over the 2.5-mile course at Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx, the Warriors, competing in the featured Eastern States Championships, picked up 127 points, beating everyone in the elite field of 17 except Fayetteville-Manlius.
Not only did the state no. 1-ranked Hornets win with 22 points, it had the top three individuals in the race, too, a sweep by Claire Walters, who won in 14 minutes, 13.2 seconds, ahead of Sophie Ryan (14:18.5) and Phoebe White (14:20.1).
Even Liverpool’s top duo of Jenna Schulz and Madison Neuner could not keep up with an F-M side that placed all five of its best runensr within the top 10, though Schulz did make her way to eighth place in 14:37.1 and Neuner got 11th place in 14:42 flat.
Helping them out, the Warriors had Natalie Kurz rise up to claim 19th place in 15:18.9, while Sydney Carlson finished 38th in 15:51.9. Rosie Petrella, finishing 51st in a clocking of 16:08.4, rounded out the scoring column as Isabella Brancato posted 16:57 flat and Windsor Ardner finished in 17:15.3.
The Liverpool boys cross country team was part of Varsity Race C, finishing fifth in a field of 27 with 210 points, but trailing Cicero-North Syracuse, who was fourth with 202 points.
This happened even though the Warriors’ Nathan Reeves finished eighth in 13:22.6. T.J. Praschunus was 30th in 13:49.8, while Nick Brancato was 41st in 13:57.2. Cullen McLaughlin was 57th in 14:09.6 ahead of Spencer Reudiger (14:23.4), Ethan Glashauser (14:28.4) and Carter Rodriguez (14:32.8).
On the C-NS side, Nathan Poirier, who was 17th in 13:32.5, was the lone top-35 finisher for the Northstars, but its other runners were closely bunched to catch up and pass Liverpool in the standings.
Sam Barber finished 36th in 13:54 flat, while David Ware got 40th place in 13:57 flat, inches ahead of Brancato. Brandon Martin finished 51st in 14:05.4 as John Perperian got 58th place in 14:11.1 ahead of Mike McBride (14:17.6) in 65th place and R.J. Davis (14:21.3) in 70th place.
