Area cross country teams faced another busy week that included league races and, for many of them, a trip to Rochester to compete Saturday in the massive McQuaid Invitational.
It was the misfortune of West Genesee to get drawn into a three-way meet against Fayetteville-Manlius and Liverpool, whose boys and girls teams held the no. 1 and no. 3 spots in the state Class A rankings.
They raced at Long Branch Park, where even with strong efforts from all of its runners, the girls Wildcats lost 15-50 decisions to both sides, F-M edging Liverpool head-to-head 26-29.
To demonstrate the strengths of F-M and Liverpool on the girls side, WG’s top runner, Faith Knox, finished 18th in 21.04.2, well off the course-record 17:41.4 put up by the Hornets’ Claire Walters. Liz Morey was 22nd in 21:31.7 as Hannah Craybas (21:41.3) was 24th.
WG did a bit better in the boys race (a 19-44 loss to Liverpool, a 16-47 defeat to F-M) thanks to Matt Bartolotta, who finished sixth in 16:31.6, not far from the winning 15:58.4 by F-M’s Geoff Howles. Graye Mehl, a ninth-grader, took 20th place in 18:05.3.
Bartolotta went from there to finishing sixth in the Unseeded Large School race in last Saturday’s McQuaid Invitational in a time of 15:53.2. As a team, WG’s boys were 13th, with Mehl taking 44th in the team standings in 17:04.1.
girls finished 18th in the seeded Large School division, with Knox pacing the girls Wildcats as she posted a time of 19:36.8. Natalie Buckhout, in 20:12.5, was just ahead of Morey (20:19.7), Olivia Lockwood (20:23.6) and Emily Huttar (20:26.5) as Craybas posted 20:34.4 and Abby Kuppinger finished in 21:25.7.
Westhill swept its OHSL Liberty division meet with Homer, the girls Warriors easily prevailing 18-50 as Haylei Coolican led all individuals with a top time of 19:31.
Katherine Evans was second in 19:56 as Ashley Heffernan (20:22) completed a top-three Westhill sweep. Kendra MacCaull was fifth in 20:37, with Sarah Thompson sixth in 20:46 and Emily O’Reilly seventh in 21:25, beating out Angie Mesa (21:26) and Kylie Nowicki (21:27) in the next two spots.
Armed with the no. 12 state Class C ranking, Westhill’s boys ripped past Homer 21-48, claiming the individual race when Dan Washburn, in 15:39, held off the Trojans’ Teddy Mercer (15:48) by nine seconds.
Then the Warriors’ depth took over. Brendan Rewakowski was third in 15:56 as Jacob Fricano was fourth in 16:14. Will Thornton got sixth place in 17:02 as Angelo Carr (17:08) got sixth place. Scott MacBain (17:32) edged Josiah Miggiani (17:33) for ninth place.
Marcellus raced against Hannibal last Tuesday afternoon, and the girls Mustangs prevailed 23-34, with Maggie Strempel leading the way as her time of 19:27 was just behind the winning 19:17 by the Warriors’ Emily Weaver as Madeline Caron finished third in 19:30.
Brielle McShane, in 19:49, made her way to fifth place, with Virginia Lucchetti earning sixth place in 20:43. Violet Grieb got seventh place in 20:43 as Amy Francesconi finished in 10th place in 21:49.
It was different in the boys meet as Marcellus lost, 19-44, to Hannibal, no. 16 in the state Class C rankings. The Warriors swept the top three spots, led by Patrick Hall, who won in 15:47.
On the Mustangs’ side, Nick Roseboom had a fourth-place clocking of 16:14, half a minute ahead of Aiden Shea (16:44) in fifth place. Only one other Marcellus runner, Kevin Huss, had a top-10 finish, posting 17:46.
Jordan-Elbridge swept Altmar-Parish-Williamstown as, in the girls race, Hannah Fitcher led the Eagles with a winning time of 22:24, more than two minutes ahead of the field.
Vasianna Klock was second in 24:49, with Tatiana Parkolap third in 25:36. Madison Daly, in a time of 26:04, finished ahead of Olivia Minkheim (26:18) and Kendall Shaw (26:40) as Lindsay Jackson posted 28:35.
In the J-E boys’ 15-48 win over APW, Kenney Williams, in 19:38, held off teammate Sean Dristle (19:32) for the top spot. Logan Kinney was third in 20:03 and Derek Quigley (20:10) got fourth place. Matt Sheldon was seventh in 21:16, ahead of Matt Kent (21:37) and Colin Jewsbury (22:45).
Solvay ran against Chittenango and Phoenix. In the boys race, where the Bearcats lost 27-30 to the Firebirds and 17-44 to the Bears, Luke Dwyer had a sixth-place time of 19:35.08 as Adam DeLucia finished 10th in 20:18.54.
