It wasn’t enough for the Cicero-North Syracuse girls cross country team to defeat Baldwinsville in the Large School division of the Bees’ own invitational meet on Sept. 22.
Just four days later, at a rain-soaked Oneida Shores, the state Class A no. 13-ranked Northstars would lean on its depth to put way state no. 15-ranked B’ville 22-37, while also defeating Henninger and Nottingham.
Kate Putman would not try and chase down B’ville’s Justus-Holden Betts, who won in 19 minutes, 59.2 seconds, but the eighth-grader did get second place in 20:29.7, just ahead of Allison Newton, who was third in 20:30.1.
Eighth-grader Marissa Navarra grabbed fourth place in 20:56.9 and Maria Marullo was fifth in 21:09.9, clinching C-NS’s team win even before the next pack of four arrived at the finish line.
Riley Barrett led them, getting eighth place overall in 22:09.5, while Morgan Steckler finished ninth in 22:14.6. Just behind her, Abbee Norris gained 10th place in 22:17.4 and Sarah Davis was 11th in 22:31.4.
The boys race involving these four teams had a slightly different outcome, with C-NS also handling Henninger and Nottingham, but taking a 27-31 defeat to B’ville.
This happened even though C-NS’s Nathan Poirier and R.J. Davis went 1-2 among individuals, Poirier prevailing in 17.01.8, just ahead of Davis, who posted 17:04.4.
Six of the next seven finishing spots went to the Bees, led by Connor McManus (17:22.0), Adam Davis (17:26.0) and Garrett Vannatta (17:27.4), with only Matt LeClair interrupting for the Northstars as he got sixth place in 17:34.5. Lucas Sharron was 10th in 17:59 flat as Brad Laquidardi, in 13th place (18:15.6), rounded out the scoring column.
With its rescheduled showdown with Liverpool looming on Wednesday, both C-NS sides went to Utica for the E.J. Herrmann Invitational and pulled off a clean sweep of the Varsity 2 (large school) division races.
The girls Northstars won with 42 points to the 47 by reigning state Class C champion Christian Brothers Academy. Putman was second in 19:53.3 behind CBA’s Olivia Morganti, who won in 18:24.6, while Newton was fifth in 20:33.3 and Navarra got seventh place in 20:57.6.
When Marullo finished 11th in 21:28.5, C-NS had the same score as CBA, so it came down to fifth runners and Barrett, in 22:06.1, was five spots ahead of the Brothers’ Bri Pucci (22:27.9). Sarah Davis (22:15.8) beat out Norris (22:19.9) for 19th place.
Moving to the boys Varsity 2 race, C-NS, with 57 points, easily was ahead of runner-up Cortland (101 points) as R.J. Davis finished fourth among individuals in a clocking of 17:26.5.
LeClair, in 17:44 flat, finished 10th, with Sharron getting 12th place in 18:03.6. Poirier gained 15th place in 18:17.6 and Josh Koeppe was 16th in 18:21.9, with Evan Brietbeck (18:54.9) one spot ahead of Laquidari (18:55.6).
