As it does each September, the East Syracuse Minoa cross country teams host an invitational meet at Pine Grove Middle School, drawing in a large field from across Central New York.
Yet it was Spartans junior Nick Berg prevailing on his home course in the boys race. Against a field of nearly 200 runners, Berg, in 16 minutes, 52.2 seconds, pulled clear as Watkins Glen’s Gabe Planty was second in 17:03.9.
From a team standpoint, ESM was eighth out of 29 sides, with no other Spartan other than Berg in the top 50 of the team portion as Michael Sanders was 53rd in 19:09.3, followed by Marcus Evans (19:40.8), Casey Engineri (20:04.4) and Spencer Carnival (20:35.4).
Jamesville-DeWitt claimed third place in the team event with 108 points, trailing only Brighton (79) and Cicero-North Syracuse (104) as Kaleel Boykins made his way to sixth place for the Red Rams in 17:29.1.
Luke Hobika finished 17th in 17:56 flat, with Nick Mannion (18:20.7) holding off Collin Rivercomb (18:21.8) for 26th place. Nate Rindfuss was 34th in 18:32.5), just ahead of Ahviere Reese (18:41.5) and Alan Gao (18:46.7).
Moving to the girls race at ESM, again J-D was in third place behind Brighton and C-NS, only here it was Sophia Vinciguerra at the forefront for the Rams as she took eighth place in 20:58.2.
Madeline Foss got 14th place in 21:24.3 and Amelia Gilbert was 19th in 21:37.1, with Abby Palin 28th in 22:32.5. Stella Heflin ran to a time of 23:30 flat and Amanda Semmel finished in 23:39.3.
As for ESM, who finished 11th in the team standings, Emma Biel fared best, getting 33rd place in 22:58.2 as Mary Roach was 50th in 23:45 flat, ahead of Elena Vespi (24:17.4) and Taylor Hoffman (24:45.9).
ESM opened its Salt City Athletic Conference Metro division slate last Wednesday against Auburn, with the girls holding off the Maroons 24-35 and the boys earning a 21-34 victory.
Biel won the girls race for the Spartans, her time of 22:38 nearly a full minute better than the 23:30 from Roach.
Bethany Lorezno, third in 23:51, led a trio of Auburn runners in third place. Yet ESM swept the rest of the top 10 as Vespi, in sixth place in 24:53, led that pack. Hoffman was seventh in 25:23, ahead of Jazmin Tyo (25:38), Marina Lopez (25:51) and Marissa Drogo (27:01).
Berg, with his time of 17:14, easily claimed the boys race, more than two minutes ahead of Auburn’s Jack Moochler (19:18) as the Spartans swept the rest of the top five.
Sanders finished third in 19:26, with Engineri fourth in 19:45 and Evans taking fifth place in 19:51 to edge the Maroons’ Max Dauerheim. Carnival had a seventh-place clocking of 19:57.
J-D had opened its league slate with sweeps of Fulton and Oswego. With the no. 15 state Class B ranking, the girls Red Rams got past the Buccaneers 25-35 and swept the Red Raiders 15-50.
Vinciguerra’s third-place time of 21:19 trailed Oswego’s Molly Fitzgibbons (20:22) and Miranda Gilbert (20:25), but led a pack of six J-D runners.
Foss was fourth in 21:31, well clear of Palin, who edged Amelia Gilbert for fifth place though both finished in 22:47. Semmel was seventh in 23:14 and Kathryn Sizing (23:38) was eighth.
