Every inch and every placement would count when the Chittenango boys cross country team held off Marcellus to win Wednesday’s Onondaga High School League Liberty division championships at Long Branch Park in Liverpool.

When all was totaled, the Bears had 95 points, one ahead of the Mustangs’ total of 96 points. Jordan-Elbridge and Skaneateles tied for third place with 121 points.

This was very much a collective effort. None of the Chittenango runners finished inside the top 10 as Homer’s Grant Stokoe took the individual title in 17 minutes, 7.3 seconds, edging Marcellus’ Joe Riccardi (17:09.4) for that title.

Ersilio Cerminaro put the Bears on the board by finishing 11^th in 17:38.5. In between the Mustangs’ second and third runners (Ethan Mosure 15^th, Grayson Hoag 20^th), Karl Farber got 16^th place in 17:55.5 and Matt Morak finished 18^th in 18:09.4.

Just as important to Chittenango was the work of Dave Gratien and Lucas Spirilidozzi, as Gratien finished 24^th in 18:24.2 and Spiridilozzi got 26^th place in 18:26.7 to round out the scoring column.

Then the Bears saw Marcellus’ Riley Burns finish 27^th and Charles Donovan take 32^nd place – but Donovan needed to finish 30^th to secure the league meet, so Chittenango held on for the victory.

Elsewhere for the Bears, Caleb Seale finished 52^nd in 19:21.3, just ahead of teammates Nate Lampman (19:28.1) and Devlin Cameron (19:31.2), who were 57^th and 61^st, respectively.

In the girls OHSL Liberty meet, Chittenango had a solid showing, too, earning 124 points for fourth place. CBA, the state’s no. 1-ranked Class C team, won with 18 points as Westhill (75 points) and Cazenovia (84 points) followed.

Mackenzie Dombroski made her way to 13^th place in a clocking of 21:38.1 to lead the Bears as Chelsea Lamphere was 14^th in 21.45.9. McKayla Capeling was 29^th in 22:58.1.

Kiara Waite, in a time of 23:38.4, finished 33^rd, two spots ahead of Devin Gordon (23:54.5) in 35^th place. Brooke Price took 40^th place in 24:14.3, while Jada Sowich (24:42.1) was 45^th ahead of Lailah Emad (25:35.1), Maddy Heller (25:42.1), Kayla Mendez (25:57.5) and Eryn Thompson (26:02.4).

After all this, Chittenango hosted its own invitational meet on Saturday, where the boys Bears finished fourth out of 10 teams in Varsity Race 2 behind Beaver River, Cicero-North Syracuse and East Syracuse Minoa.

Individually, Farber had the best showing as he finished in 17:43 flat to take 13^th place. Spirdilozzi, in 18:24.5, beat out Cerminaro (18:25.2) for 26^th place, while Seale (18:53.6) finished ahead of Gratien (18:56.8) and Lampman (19:02.8).

In the girls Varsity Race 2, Chittenango’s girls was fifth in a 10-team field as Beaver River won with 26 points. Dombroski, in 21:31.4, got 12^th place, with Lamphere 16^th in 21:48 flat. Capeling was 28^th among team runners (33^rd overall) in 22:49.6 as Waite (23:06.1), Price (23:45.0) and Emad (24:30.9) followed.

Hannibal won the boys Varsity 1 race and South Lewis took the girls Varsity 1 race, Individual titles went to Hannibal’s Ben Dennison (Varsity 1) and Beaver River’s Colton Kempney (Varsity 2) in boys divisions, with Hannah Ielfeld (South Lewis) and Mia Pestle (C-NS) the girls Varsity 1 and 2 winners, respectively.