Each October, the Fayetteville-Manlius cross country teams make their way to New York City for the Manhattan Invitational, and last weekend did so again – but with a twist.
Unlike years past, when both sets of Hornets always ran in the featured Eastern States Championship, only the boys did this time, with the F-M girls opting to go in one of the other race, the Varsity B division.
Despite this, the girls still managed to steal the show thanks to senior Claire Walters managing the fastest time of the day on the girls side at Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx.
On a 2.5-mile course (shorter than the 5,000 meters typical of large-scale meets), Walters finished in 13 minutes, 57.1 seconds, only the fifth time in meet history that a girls runner broke the 14-minute mark.
To put that in perspective, Randolph’s Abbey Loveys, who won the featured Eastern States race, had a time of 14:03 flat, nearly six seconds slower than Walters.
F-M won the team portion of the Varsity B race as Phoebe White had her strongest showing of the fall, getting third place in 14:50.6 as Hannah Kaercher was fifth in 15:23.2. Grace Kaercher was seventh in 15:24.5.
As for the rest of the Hornets, Chloe Bullough had a solid race, finishing 21st in 16:05 flat, with Emily Cook getting to 26th place in 16:12.4 and Lejla Borcilo 29th in 16:15.6
Meanwhile, the state Class A no. 1-ranked F-M boys second in the Eastern States race with 113 points, trailing only Bishop Hendricken, a prep school from Rhode Island, who won with 92 points by placing each of its five best runners within the top 35.
F-M couldn’t quite match that effort, but still had Peyton Geehrer make his way to eighth place, covering the Van Cortlandt Park course in in 12:39.2 as Bolles’ Charles Hicks won in 12:15.2.
Geoff Howles finished 16th in 12:47.4, inches ahead of teammate Sam Otis, who was 17th in 12:47.8, while Garrett Brennan had to settle for 29th place in 12:53.7 as Matt Tripp finished 43rd in 13:06.8. Nolan Chiles finished in 13:27.9 and Jakob Kelley posted 13:31.1.
Jamesville-DeWitt and East Syracuse Minoa also were part of the Manhattan Invitational, with the boys Red Rams and Spartans both in the Varsity D race as ESM’s Nick Berg finished sixth in 13:15.1.
Finishing eighth in the team standings, J-D had Nick Mannion get to 13th place in 13:30.8 as Kaleel Boykins was 27th in 13:44.8. Fidel Martinez posted 14:12.4, with Ahviere Reese (14:19.4) just ahead of Michael Sizing (14:19.6) as Alan Gao (14:33.4) and Luke Hobika (14:39.3) followed.
Following Berg on ESM’s side, Casey Engineri finished in 14:50 flat, with Marcus Evans posting 14:53.8 ahead of Michael Sanders (15:08.6), Spencer Carnival (15:11.8), Josh Cain (16:01.6) and Bennett Ferrari (16:26.2).
J-D’s girls team was in the Varsity C race and had Sophia Vinciguerra at the forefront as she finished 22nd in 15:59.4, with Amelia Gilbert 37th in 16:35.7 as Madeline Foss was 50th in 16:48.3.
As a team, the Red Rams were ninth out of 28 sides, with Abby Palin finishing in 17:25.4 ahead of a group that included Stella Heflin (17:55.2), Kathryn Sizing (18:03.3) and Cora Gilbert, who finished in 18:43 flat.
In the girls Varsity B race, ESM had Mary Roach lead the way, taking 84th place in 18:07. 8 as Taylor Hoffman finished in 18:26 flat. Allyana O’Brien (18:54.0) was two spots ahead of Marissa Drogo (18:56.2), followed by Elena Vespi (19:14.2) and Megan Barone, who posted 20:29.6.
F-M, J-D and ESM all compete this Wednesday in the Salt City Athletic Conference championships in Baldwinsville.
