Now West Genesee girls cross country senior Carly Benson and Marcellus sophomore Maggie Strempel can boast of having a part in winning a state championship.
Benson was one of five Section III individual runners that combined with Fayetteville-Manlius to produce a victory in last Saturday’s state championship meet at Wayne High School, with Strempel doing the same in Class C as she worked with first-time state champions CBA.
When all the runners’ totals were put together in Class A, Section III had a score of 127 points, well clear of Section II’s runner-up total of 271 points.
Benson beat most of the 106-runner field, making her way to 37th place in 21 minutes, 4.7 seconds. Section III had six of the top 10 finishers, four from F-M along with Liverpool’s Jenna Schulz (19:33.8) and Madison Neuner (19:45.1), who were ninth and 10th, respectively.
On the individual side, Benson, Schulz and Neuner were joined by Baldwinsville’s Justus Holden-Betts, who finished 15th in 20:10.7, and Liverpool’s Natalie Kurz, who was 26th in 20:40.6.
As for Strempel, she would finish 48th in the Class C state race in 22:21.3, while CBA, on the way to the state title, claimed three of the top seven spots and Section III, with 216 points, easily beat out Section VI (340 points) overall.
Clinton’s Eva Borton was second in 19:45.4 as her teammate, Taylor Harvey, finished fifth in 20:57.6 ahead of Vernon-Verona-Sherrill’s Delaney Brewer in ninth place (21:15.2) and Cazenovia’s Meggie Hart (22:07.7) in 34th place.
Marcellus also sent Joe Riccardi to the boys Class C race, and Riccardi was superb, making it all the way to 12th place in a clocking of 17:31.5, trailing only Cazenovia’s James McPherson (10th, 17:27.9) among Section III competitors.
Meanwhile, in the boys state Class A race, another West Genesee runner, Matt Bartolotta, helped the Section III team finish fifth overall, Bartolotta gaining 90th place in a time of 18:08.6.
With modest expectations, the Westhill boys managed to snare the Section III Class B championship Nov. 4 at Vernon-Verona-Sherrill.
Thus, anything that happened in the state Class B meet at Wayne was a bonus, and the Warriors would finish eighth in the 11-team field as Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake took the top prize.
Brendan Rewakowski led Westhill’s efforts, getting to 21st place among team runners and 48th overall in 17:52 flat, well clear of teammate Jake Suddaby, who was 41st in the team race in 18:39.9.
Dan Washburn posted a time of 18:40.6, finishing ahead of Jacob Fricano (18:51.4) by more than 10 seconds. Cade Van Ornam had a time of 19:02.5 as Jack Savage finished in 19:33.9 and Mike Ferrara posted 20:15.7.
In the girls Class B state race, Westhill junior Haylei Coolican had a solid showing, beating more than half the field as she took 44th palce in 21:58.4. The Section III team was fifth overall as Section I (303 points) took top honors.
