J-D girls snare sectional cross country honors

Madeline Foss and Sophia Vinciguerra were the driving forces as the Jamesville-DeWitt girls country team held off a challenge from Westhill and earned the Section III Class B championship Saturday at Vernon-Verona-Sherrill.

The state no. 7-ranked Red Rams had 55 points to the Warriors’ 57, requiring its top runners to perform like they did, but also needing the rest of the team to step up as every placement proved important.

Foss, just a freshman, proved too strong for the rest of the Class B field, finishing in 19 minutes, 40.4 seconds, well clear of Vinciguerra, who still beat the rest of the pack to get second place in 17:54.4.

Westhill’s top four runners all were within the top 16, so the Rams needed to closely follow, and did so, starting with Amelia Gilbert, who made her way to 17^th place in 21:53.1.

Ayla Erwin was strong, too, getting 19^th place in 21:59.6, and when Megan Brown crossed the finish line in 22^nd place in 22:08 flat, J-D had the points needed for the title.

Abby Palin got 23^rd place in 22:09.3, with Stella Heflin 30^th in 22:34 flat, beating out the likes of Abby Leavitt (23:19.3), Katie Sullivan (23:21.1) and Samantha Aitken (23:26.7), who all finished in the top 50.

East Syracuse Minoa finished 11^th out of 14 sides, with Emma Biel posting the best individual finish as she got 29^th place in 22:33.6. Mary Roach was 52^nd in 23:36.8as Julia Schug (24:08.1) beat out Jazmin Tyo (24:08.6) and Marina Lopez posted 24:47.2.

As to the boys meet, J-D was expected to battle with New Hartford for top team honors, but both of these state-ranked sides were stunned as unranked Weshtill won with 86 points to New Hartford’s 94, with J-D third (104 points).

ESM was fourth with 130 points, but had Nick Berg earn a spot in this Saturday’s state meet at Wayne High School as he roared to second place in 17:00.2, trailing only New Hartford’s Josh Farmer, who won in 16:38.8.

J-D’s Kaleel Boykins just missed on reaching the state meet as he was ninth in a time of 17:46 flat. Ahviere Reese was 14^th in 17:55.2 as Sam Glisson (18:17.6) beat out Nick Mannion (18:22.3) for 25^th place and Michael Sizing was 33^rd in 18:32.8.

No one on the Spartans’ side got too close to Berg’s efforts, though David Rivers had a solid showing as he took 17^th place in 18:13.9. Nolan Byrd made it to 22^nd place in 18:13.9 as Casey Engineri was 38^th in 18:45.7 and Michael Sanders was 54^th in 19:16.9.