Five weeks, featuring four high-profile races, lay ahead of the Fayetteville-Manlius girls cross country team as it pursued another long set of championship honors.
To start with, the Hornets ventured to Saturday’s Section III Class A championships at Vernon-Verona-Sherrill, where its intentions were made known by having two of its top runners, Claire Walters and Sophie Ryan, break the VVS course record.
Walters would get away from everyone and tear to a time of 17 minutes, 44.4 seconds. Ryan was 15 seconds behind, but her finish in 17:59.4 also shattered the course mark.
Phoebe White got third place in 18:09.4, while Rebecca Walters made it to fourth place in 18:14.6 as the Hornets cruised to another sectional title with 17 points to runner-up Liverpool’s total of 49 points.
Six of the top 10 finishers came from F-M, with Grace Kaercher following the Hornets’ top quartet as she finished seventh in 18:58.7 and Palmer Madsen got 10th place in 19:20.7. Alex Villalba was 16th in 20:23.3 as Emily Cook was 23rd in 20:50.5 and Lejla Borcilo finished 29th in 21:00.2.
As for the F-M boys, it entered the sectional Class A meet having fallen from the top spot in the state rankings, Northport now sitting ahead of the Hornets, which was motivation enough.
All that F-M did on the sectional course at VVS was sweep the top six individual spots, with Ben Otis at the helm as he tore to victory in 16 minutes, 5.8 seconds, easily the quickest time of all four sectional races.
Geoff Howles, posting a time of 16:28.8, finished second, while Garrett Brennan got third place in 16:36.5. Leading the next group, Matt Tripp got fourth place in 16:46.6, just ahead of Peyton Geehrer (18:48.3) in fifth place as Jack Duncanson was sixth in 16:50.8.
Further back, Sam Otis was 13th in 17:14.3 as Eli Capri got 14th place in 17:16.8 and Max Perry was 16th in 17:23.3. F-M’s perfect score of 15 points put them ahead of second-place Baldwinsville (55 points) and set up this Saturday’s run at the state championship at Wayne High School.
Earlier that day, the Christian Brothers Academy girls cross country team backed up its no. 1 state ranking by earning the sectional Class C team title with 49 points as host VVS was second with 78 points.
Deja Jones, in a time of 19:15.1, was second among individuals behind Clinton’s Eva Borton (19:02.6), with Olivia Morganti making her way to third place in 19:44.2. Cory Knox was eighth in 20:46 flat as Bri Pucci got 17th place in 21:31.4 and Lea Kyle, in 21:31.4, claimed 19th place.
CBA’s boys team finished 11th out of 17 sides in its Class C sectional race, having Riley Nash just miss qualifying for the state meet as he was seventh among individuals outside the winning team from VVS and eighth overall in 17:35.9. Zach Medicis was 14th in 17:55.5 as Adam Kantor (19:05.5) was 58th.
