Again, a Fayetteville-Manlius cross country team stood atop the state Class A rankings at the outset of league competition.
Only here it was the boys Hornets on top, and not the girls, who were at no. 3 behind Liverpool and Shenendehowa following its runner-up finish behind Shen in the Sept. 8 Chittenango Invitational.
F-M could quickly atone for that if it won at Baldwinsville last Wednesday, and on the Durgee course the Hornets had little trouble prevailing 17-44 over the state no. 13-ranked Bees.
It was Grace Kaercher going to the front, her time of 18 minutes, 53 seconds nearly a full minute ahead of her sister, Hannah Kaercher, who in 19:43 edged Claire Walters (19:49) for second place.
B’ville’s Justus Holden-Betts was fourth in 19:54, but F-M clinched it as Lejla Borcilo finished fifth in 20:06 and Emily Cook was sixth in 20:13. Phoebe White, still recovering from an injury, was eighth in 20:38 ahead of Chloe Bullough (20:51) and Isabell Crovella (21:12).
Meanwhile, with its top state ranking, the F-M boys flattened B’ville 15-50 by sweeping the top seven spots in the standings, each of them finishing within 13 seconds of each other.
Nolan Chiles led the Hornets and won in 16:47, three seconds ahead of Max Perry’s 16:50. Matt Tripp was third in 16:59 and Geoff Howles, in 16:59, beat out Garrett Brennan, Sam Otis and Peyton Geehrer, who ran together and finished in 17 minutes flat.
This was also the week where the Christian Brothers Academy girls started its OHSL Liberty division schedule, having gained a promotion to Class B for post-season races after winning its first-ever state Class C championship a year ago.
CBA swept Chittenango 19-39 and Homer 15-46 last Wednesday, led again by Olivia Morganti, whose swift time of 16:36 was nearly two minutes ahead of the Bears’ McKenzie Dombroski (18:20) in second place.
Cory Knox finished third in 18:40, with Bri Pucci fourth in 19:24. Mia Kirch, in 20:14, beat out Lea Kyle (20:19) for fifth place as CBA also had Savannah Conway finish ninth in 20:45.
In the boys meet, CBA beat Homer 26-30, but lost 19-39 to Chittenango. Zach Medicis finished third for the Brothers with a time of 15:37 as Riley Nash gained fifth place in 15:59. The Trojans’ Teddy Mercer (15:24) and the Bears’ Ersilio Cerminero (15:37) ran 1-2.
The CBA girls would then win its first large-scale race of the season Saturday by taking first in the Small School division of the New Hartford Invitational with 39 points, well clear of runner-up South Jefferson (84 points).
Morganti won the individual race, pulling away and finishing in 18:34.6 as Deja Jones got third place in 19:21.8. Knox was ninth in 21:07, with Pucci 10th in 21:11 as Kirch gained 16th place in 22:03. Annie Toole was 30th in 23:19 and Savannah Conway (23:30) was 33rd.
John Masinde finished sixth in the boys Small School race at New Hartford in 17:15, two spots ahead of Nash (17:43) in eighth place as CBA was third in the team standings behind Beaver River and Westhill. Joel Gaffney was 26th in 18:57.
Back on Tuesday, Bishop Grimes and Manlius-Pebble Hill got together as part of a four-way race with Pulaski and Faith Heritage.
The Trojans beat the Cobras 30-36 in the boys meet, MPH also topping the Saints 15-50 while falling 23-36 to the Blue Devils as Mathias Deldique finished third in the individual race in 19:51.31, with Dan Braverman fourth in 19:58. Faith’s Hans Matzal won in 18:27.1.
The girls meet had Grimes beat MPH 15-50, the Cobras also topping Faith Heritage 19-36 but losing 17-41 to Pulaski.
Individually, Alicia Kelly had Grimes’ best effort, taking fourth place in 26:04 as Pulaski’s Sophie Lawrence won in 24:34. Julia Avery was seventh in 27:25 ahead of Sophia Gerasimovich (27:25), Sarah Cone (28:39) and Jaiden Eallonardo (28:46).
