Plenty was on the line for the Liverpool girls cross country team as it went to Vernon-Verona-Sherrill High School for last Saturday’s Section III Class A championship meet.
The state no. 3-ranked Warriors had hopes of advancing to both the Nike New York-Northeast Regional meet later this month at Bowdoin Park and, perhaps, making it all the way to the Dec. 2 Nike Cross Nationals in Portland, Oregon.
But the more immediate task was getting as many runners as possible to this Saturday’s state championships at Wayne High School, and Liverpool did so as Jenna Schulz, Madison Neuner and Natalie Kurz advanced.
Schulz tore around the VVS course in 18 minutes, 24.8 seconds, fastest among the runners outside of Fayetteville-Manlius as the Hornets swept the top four spots, with Claire Walters (17:44.4) and Sophie Ryan (17:59.4) each breaking the course record ahead of Phoebe White (18:09.4) and Rebecca Walters (18:14.6).
Meanwhile, Neuner finished right behind Schulz as she got sixth place in 18:42.5. Kurz, a senior, posted 19:36 flat, which placed her 11th overall, but fifth among the individuals outside of F-M by a comfortable margin.
Thus, Kurz got to join Schulz, Neuner, Justus Holden-Betts (Baldwinsville) and Carly Benson (West Genesee) on the Section III All-Star side going to Wayne for the state meet.
Liverpool easily finished second in the team standings behind F-M, helped by Rosie Petrella taking 13th place in 20:06.3, just ahead of Sydney Carlson, who was 14th in 20:07.6.
Windsor Ardner was 20th in 20:38 flat, while freshman Gabby McCarthy gained 30th place in 21:09.0. Isabella Brancato gained 34th place in 21:27.2, ahead of Emily Neuner in 45th place (22:22.7) and Sarah Sedlock (22:44.4) in 49th place.\
As for Cicero-North Syracuse, who was fifth in the team standings, the best finish came from Mia Pestle, who took 18th place in 20:33.2 as Sarah Davis made her way to 28th place in 20:59.9.
Behind them, Allison Newton was 31st in 21:12.2, just ahead of Annina Marullo (21:19.4) in 32nd place. Gigi Pascarella got to 38th place in 22:00.8 as Maria Marullo was 46th in 22:29.6, ahead of Abbee Norris (22:48.3), Savannah Kurr (22:49.9), Emily Dembowski (22:54.7) and Sarah Herter (22:58.8).
Meanwhile, in the boys sectional Class A meet, Liverpool and C-NS would each fight for spots behind F-M in the team standings and also to see if individuals could reach the state meet.
Nathan Reeves did so for the Warriors, as the junior posted a time of 16 minutes, 55 seconds, which put him eighth overall, but second among runners behind F-M’s top-six sweep. Reeves joins the Baldwinsville trio of Garrett Vannatta, Joe Licameli and Connor McManus, plus West Genesee’s Matt Bartolotta, in advancing to the state meet.
On the team side, Liverpool finished third with 93 points behind F-M and B’ville, with Nick Brancato 19th in 17:26.4 and T.J. Praschunus 20th in 17:28.3.
Carter Rodriguez made his way to 24th place in 17:39.5, while Cullen McLaughlin was 30th in 17:48.2 and Spencer Ruediger was 31st in 17:49.1. Ethan Glashauser got 35th place in 17:57.5 and Jake McGowan was 41st (18:05.6) ahead of Eli Barbour (18:36.8) and Ben Zinger (18:43.1).
C-NS, one point behind West Genesee for fourth place, was led by Brandon Martin, who gained 15th place in 17:19.3. Sam Barber was 26th, in 17:40.8, part of a group with Nathan Poirier (17:42.7) in 27th place and Jason Hughes (17:43.3) in 28th place.
R.J. Davis gave the Northstars a 32nd-place finish in 17:49.3, while Lucas Sharron was 39th in 18:05.1. David Ware made it to 49th place in 18:25.8, ahead of Michael McBride (18:36.1), John Perperian (18:51.2) and Calvin Garnes (18:55.3).
