Whatever the Chittenango boys cross country team accomplished in last Saturday’s Section III Class B championships at Vernon-Verona-Sherrill was a bonus following its Oct. 18 victory in the Onondaga High School League Liberty division championship meet.
Still, the Bears were eager to find out how it would fare against a deep field. New Hartford and Jamesville-DeWitt, who were both in the state rankings (the Spartans at no. 14, the Red Rams at no. 16), entered the event as favorites..
As it turned out, Chittenango would take fifth place with 131 points, just behind fourth-place East Syracuse Minoa (130 points). The Bears, along with New Hartford and J-D, trailed Westhill, who surprised almost everyone by winning the team title with 86 points.
Karl Farber just missed out on a top-10 finish for Chittenango, making his way to 12th place overall in 17 minutes, 53.3 seconds, not too far ahead of Ersilio Cerminaro, who got 16th place in 17:57.1.
Lucas Spiridilozzi finished 28th in 18:24.4 as Matt Morak, in 18:36.5, gained 34th place. Dave Gratien was 41st in 18:52.6 as Devilin Cameron claimed 45th place in 18:59.9.
Caleb Seale made his way to 48th place in 19:03.2, in front of Nate Lampman, who was 53rd in 19:14 flat. Alex Giancola posted a time of 19:25.3 as Justin Fukes finished in 19:42.9.
In the girls sectional Class B meet at VVS, Chittenango also had a fifth-place finish, the Bears getting 168 points as J-D (55 points) edged Westhill (57 points) for the team title.
Just one Chittenango runner reached the top 30 as McKenzie Dombroski, in a clocking of 21:56.1, earned 18th place. Chelsea Lamphere finished 31st in 22:38.2.
McKayla Capeling made her way to 40th place in 23:14.5 as Kiara Waite got 44th place in 23:20.9. Brooke Price was 53rd in 23:39.2 as Lailah Emad (24:23.9), Jada Sowich (24:28.7) and Eryn Thompson (24:30.7) finished together ahead of Devin Gordon (24:44.1) and Maddy Heller (25:23.0).
