Already, the Chittenango boys cross country team is 2-0 in the Onondaga High School League Liberty division.
The Bears won both sides of last Wednesday’s three-team meet at Homer, defeating the host Trojans 26-33 while also recording a 19-39 victory over Christian Brothers Academy.
Individually, Ersilio Cerminaro had Chittenango’s best performance, his time of 15 minutes, 24 seconds trailing only the 15:14 posted by Homer’s Teddy Mercer.
Dave Gratien made his way to fourth place in 15:44 behidn CBA’s Zach Medicis (15:34) in third place, but the Bears pulled away by having Nate Lampman finish eighth in 16:35, Dylan Price get ninth place in 16:38 and Devlin Cameron nab 10th place in 17:07.
On the girls side, Chittenango would gain a split from its meet with Homer and CBA.With three runners finishing in the top 10, the Bears handled the Trojans 21-36, but could not keep up with the Brothers as it took a 19-39 defeat.
CBA is the reigning state Class C champions, but moved up to Class B this fall, and features Olivia Morganti, who dominated the individual girls race here as her time of 16:36 was nearly two minutes clear of the field.
McKenzie Dombroski led that chasing pack for the Bears, finishing second in 18:20 before four more CBA runners, led by Cory Knox (18:40), crossed the finish line. Still, Chittenango had McKayla Capeling finish seventh in 20:30 and Kiara Waite get 10th place in 20:50.
Both of the Chittenango sides would race Saturday in the East Syracuse Minoa Invitational, where in the girls event, the Bears finished 13th out of 23 teams. Dombroski finished 17th among team runners with a time of 21:31.5, the only top-50 finish for Chittenango.
Capeling finished in 24:52.1 for 68th place, three spots ahead of Waite (25:08.4), with Piper Beckwith (25:31.4), Brooke Price (25:39.2), Jada Sowich (25:54.1) and Lailah Emad (28:46.2) behind them.
For the Chittenango boys, who were 22nd in a 29-team field with its JV runners taking part, Ed Heller finished in 20:34.5, with David Seale next in 20:56.6, just ahead of Tristam LaFountaine (20:57.7) as Codey Cumber (21:50.4) and Kyle Schnauffer (23:56.5) followed.
Each of the Bears’ sides have a head-to-head race against Westhill this Wednesday afternoon.
