Now it’s even between the Liverpool girls cross country team and its principal antagonists from Fayetteville-Manlius.
The two sides that sit atop the state Class A rankings faced each other again on a chilly, windy Wednesday afternoon as part of the Salt City Athletic Conference Metro division championships at Baldwinsville.
But unlike their Sept. 26 encounter at Long Branch Park, it was the Warriors triumphant, claiming the league title with 30 points to the Hornets’ 34, and also claiming the overall meet 34-41 when factoring in runners from eight SCAC Empire division teams.
That first meeting went 26-29 in F-M’s favor, but that race only included one other team, West Genesee. This edition had a far larger field, which ultimately worked to Liverpool’s advantage.
A tone was set by Jenna Schulz, who was far closer to the Hornets’ Claire Walters at the front of the field on the Durgee course than she was at Long Branch. Walters still won in 17 minutes, 39.8 seconds, but Schulz, in 18:00.7, was less than 20 seconds behind.
And the rest of the Warriors fed off Schulz’s effort, helped in no small part by the fact that Cicero-North Syracuse eighth-grader Kate Putman affected the points race by finishing third in 18:28.4.
After F-M’s Grace Kaercher posted 18:30 flat for fourth place, the Warriors had Sydney Carlson take fifth place in 18:42.5 and Madison Neuner closely follow, getting sixth place in 18:45.1.
That gave Liverpool a two-point lead, which it protected by having Emily Neuner finish ninth in 19:04.7 and Windsor Ardner get to 12th place in 19:25.9, while F-M had Hannah Kaercher finish 10th (19:07.9), Phoebe White finish 11th (19:24.0) and Chloe Bullough take 15th place (19:45.5).
In all, seven Warriors runners finished within the top 20 in the league standings as Gabby McCarthy, in a time of 20:04.5, finished 19th and Bella Brancato was 20th in 20:10.3. Rosie Petrella (20:28.9) and Eva Woodworth (20:37.6) also had top-30 runs.
C-NS, helped by Putman and Allison Newton, finished third in the SCAC Metro team standings with 114 points.
Newton made her way to 13th place in 19:35.3, while Maria Marullo was 25th in 20:35.3. Riley Barrett was 34th in 21:20.8, five spots ahead of Abbee Norris, who posted 21:41.4 as two ninth-graders, Morgan Kingdeski (21:52.7) and Hannah Reichard (22;06.4), ran well.
In the boys SCAC Metro meet, Liverpool, now at no. 4 in the state Class A rankings, finished second with 43 points, with state no. 1-ranked F-M on top with 17 points, it swept the top four individual spots, Sam Otis winning the race in a time of 15:58.3.
To lead the Warriors, Jake McGowan went 16:20.9 to take fifth place in the league meet and sixth overall, just ahead of Carter Rodriguez, who finished in 16:26 flat.
Spencer Ruediger was eighth in the league standings and ninth overall in 16:33.6, while Nathan Reeves got 11th place overall (10th league) in 16:34.7 and Nick Brancato was 14th in the league standings in 16:46.6. T.J. Praschunus was 17th in 16:58 flat and Ryan Cartwright (17:18.2) was 23rd.
C-NS would also finish third in the boys SCAC Metro race, edging host Baldwinsville, 91 points to 96, for that spot, with R.J. Davis and Nathan Poirier leading the way. Davis was ninth in the league race (10th overall in 16:34.1 as Poirier was 11th in the league race and 12th overall in 16:37.1.
Behind them, Matt LeClair made his way to 20th place in the league race in 17:11.3, with Lucas Sharron 24th in 17:18.8. Josh Koeppe was 27th in 17:41.2 as Evan Breitbeck (18:00.5) edged Zach Bergman (18:17.1) for 30th place.
All of these same teams will race each other again Nov. 3, when the Section III Class A championships take place at Vernon-Verona-Sherrill, the same venue that just won the right to host the 2020 and 2022 state meets.
