With September drawing to a close, cross country teams at Jamesville-DeWitt and East Syracuse Minoa each had impressive efforts against Salt City Athletic Conference Empire division foes.
For J-D, that meant taking on Cortland, and on the boys side the state Class B no.7-ranked Red Rams had a genuine from the no. 13-ranked Purple Tigers, but prevailed 23-38.
Nick Mannion finished in 17 minutes, eight seconds, a close runner-up to Cortland’s Andy Ryan, who won in 17:06, with Kaleel Boykins grabbing third place in 17:15.
It was Nate Rindfuss, finishing fifth in 18:07, that led the decisive move by J-D’s chasing pack. Luke Hobika was sixth, in 18:11, just ahead of Fidel Martinez (18:13) in seventh place as Alan Gao was eighth in 18:24 and Michael Sizing got ninth place in 18:35.
Holding the no. 14 state Class B ranking, the J-D girls routed Cortland as Sophia Vinciguerra again led the Red Rams, getting through the mud to prevail in 20 minutes, 50 seconds as Madeline Foss was second in 21:40.
Amelia Gilbert got third place in 22:49, edging out Abby Palin (22:50) for that spot as Kathryn Sizing took fifth place in 23:34. Stella Heflin earned seventh place in 23:50, with Amanda Semmel eighth in 24:07 as Samantha Aitkens (24:27) held off Jillian Kordas (24:28) for ninth place.
ESM celebrated its seniors prior to its three-team race against Oswego and Syracuse West, and then proceeded to sweep both sides of that race, with the boys Spartans edging the Buccaneers 27-28 and getting past Syracuse West 21-34.
Nick Berg pulled away again, his time of 16:38 more than a minute clear of Oswego’s Harley Brinkman (18:14) and the pack. Michael Sanders was fifth, in 19:13, while Marcus Evans got sixth place in 19:20 and Casey Engineri (19:42) just made it to the top 10.
The ESM girls won 26-33 over Oswego and 15-50 over Syracuse West, though the Buccaneers’ had the top two individuals as Molly Fitzgibbons and Miranda Gilbert both posted 21:06.
Emma Biel, finishing third in 22:33, led the Spartans’ pack as Mary Roach was fourth in 23:03, with Taylor Hoffman fifth in 23:53 and Marissa Drogo sixth in 24:17.
Close behind in a second ESM pack, Elena Vespi got eighth place in 24:20, just ahead of Marina Lopez (24:23) as Jazmin Tyo got 10th place in 25:21.
With the no. 6 state ranking in Class B, the Christian Brothers Academy girls cross country team rolled past Mexico 15-45 to stay undefeated in league meets.
Deja Jones went to the front with a time of 21:12 as Lea Kyle finished second in 22:07. Cory Knox, getting third place in 23:02, edged Isabelle Canizzo (23:04) for that spot as Annie Toole (24:20) and Julia Medicis (25:59) followed.
CBA’s boys team also beat Mexico 15-45, Adam Kantor going 19:10 to edge Zach Medicis (19:11) for first place. John Masinde, in 19:21, beat out Joel Gaffney (19:22) for third place as Cooper Groat was sixth in 19:33 and Riley Nash (19:35) finished seventh.
Of far greater concern to CBA’s girls was its appearance in Saturday’s E.J. Herrmann Invitational in Utica, where Olivia Morganti returned and won the Varsity 2 race in 18:24.6.
Team-wise, CBA, with 47 points, was runner-up behind Cicero-North Syracuse’s total of 42 points. Jones was fourth in 20:10.7, while Knox got eighth place in 21:10.6. Kyle finished 12th in 21:31.2 as Pucci was 22nd in 22:27.9.
Moving to the boys division, Medicis gave CBA a sixth-place finish in 17:26.8 as Nash got to seventh place in 17:39.5. Gaffney earned 21st place in 18:47 flat.
