No one could say that the West Genesee cross country teams had coasted through early September, having gone through three races in a seven-day span.
From a Sept. 6 meet with Baldwinsville to the Chittenango Invitational less than 48 hours later, the Wildcats were already quite seasoned by the time it had its three-team match with Cicero-North Syracuse and Syracuse East last Wednesday afternoon.
WG’s girls, no. 14 in the state Class A rankings, earned a split, beating Syracuse East 15-50 but falling 23-32 to C-NS, who swept the top three spots, led by eighth-grade Katie Putman, who won in 20 minutes, 32 seconds.
Faith Knox, who finished fourth in 21:23.7, led a quartet of Wildcats as Natalie Buckhout got fifth place in 21:39.5, with Mia Mitchell sixth in 21:49.7 and Hannah Craybas seventh in 21:54.1. C-NS clinched it with two runners in front of Liz Morey (22:15.2) in 10th place.
The boys race featured, for WG, Matt Bartolotta, who roared to an individual victory in 17:42 flat, well clear of a trio of C-NS runners, none of which finished under 18 minutes.
Like its female counterparts, though, the Wildcats had to settle for a split, beating Syracuse East 15-48, but falling 21-40 to the Northstars, who had seven of the top 10 finishers. Graye Mehl did finish sixth in 18:31.5, with Chris Cutter eighth in 18:44.5.
One sign of how things can change in cross country was that Marcellus, for a long time, never could keep up with an established power like Skaneateles, at least on the girls side.
Yet in last Thursday’s meet between the two long-time rivals, it was the Mustangs getting the best of the girls meet, handling the Lakers 23-36 as it earned three of the top four individual spots.
Maggie Strempel won for Marcellus, her time of 23:18 nearly half a minute ahead of Skaneateles’ Georgia McSwain (23:45), while Madeline Caron was third in 23:17 and Brielle McShane got fourth place in 24:19. Carolyn Carlic (25:25) beat out Amy Francesconi (25:38) for eighth place.
In the boys meet, the state Class C no. 19-ranked Mustangs met the no. 14-ranked Lakers, and it proved quite a good race, but the Mustangs took a 24-31 defeat.
Nick Roseboom, finishing in 18:59, and Aiden Shea (19:14) were second and third, respectively, behind Skaneateles’ Caleb Bender, who won in 18:09.
Then the Lakers earned the next three spots before Gabriel Hoag got seventh place in 19:52. Charles Donovan, in 20:30, beat out Kyle Stottlar (20:31) in ninth place.
Westhill has the no. 17 girls ranking in Class C and began its league slate last Wednesday against Mexico, sweeping the top seven spots in a 15-50 win over the Tigers, with the boys Warriors winning by that same margin.
In a close girls race at the top, Westhill’s Liz Kessler won in 20:30, edging Haylei Coolican (20:31) as Katherine Evans was third in 20:35. Kendra MacCaull was fourth in 21:07 and Ashley Heffernan, in 21:17, was just ahead of Emily O’Reilly (21:25) and Kylie Nowicki (21:37) for fifth place.
From there, Westhill went to Saturday’s New Hartford Invitational and, in the boys race, got 73 points to finish second in the Small School race behind Beaver River’s 33 points.
Dan Washburn finished fifth in a time of 16:59, with Brendan Rewakowski 11th in 18:03 and Jacob Franco (18:06) gaining 12th place. Mike Ferrara was 22nd in 18:51, one spot ahead of Angelo Carr (18:54) as Jacob Roberts (19:14) and Brian Allen (19:20) followed.
The girls Warriors finished fourth in the Small School division at New Hartford behind CBA, South Jefferson and Beaver River.
Individually, Kessler made her way to eighth place in 20:59, with Coolican 11th in 21:12. Evans (23:10) beat out MacCaull (23:11) for 27th place ahead of Nowicki, who in 23:34 beat out O’Reilly (23:39) and Angie Mesa-Espinosa (23:43).
Solvay ran in the East Syracuse Minoa Invitational, where freshman Luke Dwyer led the boys Bearcats with a time of 20:18.4.
