Twice on Wednesday afternoon, area high school cross country teams would face each other in league competition, creating a lively start to the busy month of October.
This included Marcellus hosting Jordan-Elbridge, and it ended in a split, with the girls Mustangs prevailing 20-39 at home, but the boys Eagles earning a 23-33 victory.
On the 2.6-mile Marcellus course, J-E’s Sean Dristle was victorious in 14 minutes, 35 seconds, claiming a tight battle over teammate Kenny Williams (14:39) in second place as Marcellus had Nick Roseboom finish third in 14:40 and Aiden Shea get fourth place in 14:58.
Lee Jewell was fifth for the Eagles in 15:04, with Logan Kinney (15:36), Derek Quigley and Matt Sheldon (15:43 each) also in the top 10. The Mustangs’ Kyle Stottlar was sixth in 15:29, with Grayson Hoag 10th in 16:02.
It was Carolyn Carlic victorious for the Marcellus girls, her time of 18 minutes, 16 seconds just ahead of teammate Maggie Strempel and J-E’s Hannah Fitcher, who both finished in 18:21.
The Mustangs pulled away with Madeline Caron finishing fourth in 18:23 as Brielle McShane was fifth in 18:40. Violet Lucchetti, in 19:02, edged out Violet Grieb (19:04) for seventh place.
J-E’s Vasianna Klock made her way to sixth place in 18:45, with Madison Daly (19:16) and Tatiana Parkolap (19:29) also recording top-10 finishes.
Both teams had run in the same Unseeded Varsity A-2 race in the Sept. 29 McQuaid Invitational in Rochester. Strempel led Marcellus, finishing 19th among team runners in 20:05.7 as Fitcher was 66th for J-E in 21:31.2 to lead her side.
Ironically, the Marcellus boys were two spots ahead of J-E in that same McQuaid event, with Roseboom 28th in 17:06.9 and Shea 32nd (17:02.2), but better depth ahead of the Eagles, who saw Dristle finish 20th in 16:44.3 and Williams get 27th place in 17:04.9.
Another big event for J-E came last Saturday, when its girls finished fifth out of 13 teams in the Small School division of the Tully Invitational. Fichter led the Eagles, finishing 18th on the team side (21st overall) in 23:04.9, just ahead of Klock’s 23:14.6.
Westhill would sweep Solvay in another local battle last Wednesday, though the third team present, Christian Brothers Academy, altered the results as the girls Warriors lost to the reigning state Class C champion Brothers.
With the no. 6 state Class C ranking, Westhill’s boys won 15-50 over Solvay and 24-35 over CBA as Dan Washburn, in a time of 17:12, held off the Brothers’ Riley Nash (17:20) for the top spot.
Jacob Fricano worked his way to third place in 18:04, with Brendan Rewakowski fifth in 18:39. Will Thornton got seventh place in 18:44 ahead of Mike Ferrara (18:50) and Angelo Carr (19:00) in the top 10.
In the girls race, Liz Kessler had a solid effort, taking fourth place in 21:39, just ahead of Haylei Coolican (21:43) in fifth place. But CBA swept the top three as Olivia Morganti won in 20:14 over Bri Pucci (20:20) and Cory Knox (21:04), while Katherine Evans gave the Warriors a seventh-place time of 22:18.
Back at the McQuaid Invitational Sept. 29, the Westhill boys had Washburn finish 10th in 16:02.9 as Rewakowski got 24th place in 16:39.7 and Ferrara (16:59.8) was just ahead of Thornton (17:03.8). out of the 20 teams in that race, the Warriors finished seventh.
Westhill’s girls took 10th in its Varsity A division, led by Coolican, who finished 18th in 19:50.5 as Evans got 36th place in 20:46.7 and Kendra MacCaull (21:04.8) also cracked the top 50.
