By a single point, the Marcellus boys cross country team missed out on claiming Wednesday’s Onondaga High School League Liberty division championship meet at Long Branch Park in Liverpool.
The Mustangs, led by individual runner-up Joe Riccardi, had 96 points, but Chittenango edged them with 95 points. Jordan-Elbridge tied Skaneateles for third place with 121 points as Westhill was eighth and Solvay got 12th place.
Riccardi finished in 17 minutes, 9.4 seconds, just behind Homer’s Grant Stokoe, who won in 17:07.3. Ethan Mosure made his way to 15th place in 17:49.5 as Grayson Hoag got 20th place in 18:13.6.
Chittenango countered by having each of its top five runners finish between 11th and 26th, something the Mustangs could not quite overcome as Riley Burns was 27th in 18:36.4 and Charles Donovan was 32nd in 18:47.7. Kyle Stottler finished 40th in 18:57.4.
J-E was led by Sean Dristle, who finished ninth in 17:36.4. Hugh Schader had a 19th-place clocking of 18:13.3 as Ethan Kinney got 25th place in 18:25 flat. The Eagles also had Kenny Williams take 31st place in 18:47 flat as Jared Alpha was 37th (18:55.6) and Logan Kinney (19:06.1) got 43rd place.
As for Westhill, Brendan Rewakowski gained 13th place in 17:47.9, with Dan Washburn 23rd in 18:21.1. The Warriors’ Cade Van Ornam finished 28th in 18:37.7, with Jack Savage (18:59.6) beating out Jacob Fricano (19:03.9) for 41st place.
Jonah Wheeler had the best time for Solvay, making his way to 65th place in 19:35.7. Max Melnyk finished in 20:52.3 for the Bearcats as Adam DeLucia (21:45.2), Tim Brusa (21:56.6) and Ryan Trendell (22:23.0) followed.
In the girls OHSL Liberty meet, Westhill won a tight battle for second place with 75 points as J-E was sixth and Marcellus eighth, each of them far back of state Class C no. 1-ranked CBA, who won by sweeping the top three and had five of the top seven finishers.
As CBA’s Olivia Morganti won in 19:52.2, Westhill’s Haylei Coolican wasn’t too far behind, rising to sixth place in 20:40.5. Maura McAnaney was 11th in 21:23.7, while Kendra MacCaull was 17th in 21:56.1, half a second ahead of Alaina Kenny (21:56.6) as Emily O’Reilly was 23rd in 22:28.7. Kylie Nowicki (23:09.8) and Liz Kessler (24:12.3) also had top-40 finishes.
J-E also had a top-10 finisher thanks to Theresa Dristle, who made her way to eighth place in 21:03.3. Hannah Fichter got 16th place in 21:50.7 and Madison Daly was 21st in 22:26.4, with Kendall Shaw 43rd (24:37.5) and Lindsay Jackson (27:13.8) further back.
Marcellus featured Morgan Gould taking 22nd place in 22:27.6, just ahead of Madeline Caron, who was 25th in 22:37.7. Carolyn Carlic took 36th place in 24:02.2 as Amy Francesconi (26:17.5) was 58th. Solvay’s Larissa DeJesus was 74th in 27:57.8.
