While it had accomplished so much in 2017, the Liverpool girls cross country team desired, most of all, a chance to go to Portland, Oregon, for the Nike Cross Nationals.
In order to get that chance, the Warriors had to run well at last Saturday’s Nike New York Regional race at Bowdoin Park in Wappingers Falls, where Fayetteville-Manlius and other top teams in the state, including Saratoga Springs and Shenendehowa, stood in opposition.
As expected, F-M won, but Liverpool, with 84 points, pulled away from Saratoga (136 points) and Shenendehowa (139 points) for second place and, by doing so, clinched the coveted Nike Nationals berth.
Just as they had done at the state Class A championship meet two weeks earlier, Jenna Schulz and Madison Neuner both ran in the top 10, with Schulz getting seventh place overall in 18 minutes, 40.6 seconds and Neuner getting ninth place in 18:53.1.
Natalie Kurz was 14th among team runners, and 25th overall, in 19:39.5, while Sydney Carlson rose to 23rd in the team standings (35th overall) in 20:03 flat.
Rosie Petrella rounded out the scoring column as she got 33rd place among team runners (46th overall) in 20:18.9. Windsor Ardner posted a time of 21:21.8 and Isabella Brancato finished in 22:24.7.
Liverpool’s boys cross country had run at Bowdoin Park a week earlier, in the New York State Federation championships, where the Warriors finished 21st out of 28 teams as Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake (Section II) took the title with 80 points.
Nathan Reeves had the best individual finish for Liverpool, getting to 50th place among team runners (84th overall) in a time of 17:21 flat, with Carter Rodriguez 82nd in the team standings as he clocked 17:36.9.
Spencer Ruediger covered the Bowdoin Park course in 17:46.1, less than five seconds ahead of Nick Brancato, who got 17:50.8. T.J. Praschunus posted 18:04.1 as Ethan Glashauser (18:11.8) and Cullen McLaughlin (18:17.0) followed.
Then, in the New York Regionals, Liverpool did quite well, getting 10th place in the 24-team field as F-M (50 points) beat Corning (98 points) for the team title, avenging its narrow state Class A meet defeat to the Hawks.
Again, Reeves led the way, improving by more than 12 seconds to 17:08.5 to finish 33rd in the team standings. Rodriguez went 17:25.3 to get to 46th place, while Nick Brancato was 53rd in 17:36.7.
Ruediger was fourth among Liverpool runners as he got a time of 17:51.8. Praschunus went a bit quicker this week as he finished in 18:03.2, with McLaughlin posting 18:21.7 and Glashauser finishing in 18:29.6.
