When the Jamesville-DeWitt cross country teams made their way to Baldwinsville for Wednesday’s Salt City Athletic Conference Empire division championships, they knew that Central Square was the primary opposition.
Both races turned into duels between the Red Rams and Redhawks, with J-D’s girls, no. 14 in the state Class B rankings, holding on for the title with 48 points to Central Square’s runner-up total of 56 points.
Sophia Vinciguerra led the Rams, as Vinciguerra was third in 19 minutes, 39.4 seconds, only trailing the Oswego duo of Molly Fitzgibbons (19:01.3) and Miranda Gilbert (19:04.3).
It took Madeline Foss finishing fourth in 20:19.1 and Amelia Gilbert getting sixth place in 20:30.2 to offset the efforts of the Redhawks’ Cayley Sundet (fifth, 20:28.4) and Julia Mann (seventh, 20:49.8) and put the Rams in front for good.
Then J-D put away the league title by having Cora Gilbert make her way to 17th place in 21:58.9 and Kathryn Sizing finish 18th in 22:13.1. Further help came from Stella Heflin finishing 19th in 22:17 flat and Miriam Zoghby getting 22nd place in 22:25.2.
Meanwhile, East Syracuse Minoa got fifth place in the eight-team field, led by Mary Roach, who was 12th in 21:49 flat as Emma Biel got 16th place in 21:58.4.
Further back for the Spartans, Taylor Hoffman made her way to 23rd place in 22:27.4, while Ally O’Brien was 27th (22:56.6) and Marina Lopez 31st (23:25.9), ahead of Elena Vespi (24:08.9) and Marissa Drogo (24:15.1).
ESM would have far more success in the boys SCAC Empire race as Nick Berg emerged as the individual champion.
In 16 minutes, 19.6 seconds, Berg not only was well clear of Central Square’s Brandon Martin (16:42.7) in the league race, he was also fifth overall since SCAC Empire and Metro division runners ran together.
Team-wise, though, it was J-D with the chance to get to the top, denied by Central Square as the Red Rams had 61 points to the Redhawks’ 48 and ESM was fifth with 125 points.
Nick Mannion finished fifth for J-D in the league standings 16:57 flat and Ahviere Reese was 10th in 17:29.7, but Central Square had three of the top seven runners in Martin, Gabe Chisari (17:10.9) and Frank Derdzinski (17:14.1).
Joel Keohane (17:39.9) and Max Creamer (17:54.6) helped the Redhawks hang on, though J-D had Fidel Martinez 12th in 17:36 flat ahead of Michael Sizing in 16th place (17:52.7). Kaleel Boykins was 18th in 17:53 flat, with Brian Hulbert 23rd in 18:22.2, two spots ahead of Ashton Corona (18:26.9) in 25th place.
Other than Berg, no other ESM runner finished in the top 25, though Marcus Evans came close, his time of 18:39 flat beating out teammate Spencer Carnival, who was 29th in 18:42.7.
Michael Sanders finished 32nd in 18:55.1, with Casey Engineri in 35th place (19:06.0) as Josh Cain posted 20:20.2 and Bennett Ferrari finished in 20:36.4.
Christian Brothers Academy had its girls team earn a victory in last Saturday’s Marathon Invitational, earning 99 points to edge Elmira (101), Lansing (103), West Genesee (104) and Delhi (105) for the top spot.
Even without Olivia Morganti in the lineup, the Brothers had Lea Kyle get fourth place in 20:54.3 and Cory Knox finish sixth in 21:11.2. Bri Pucci was 15th in 21:52.7 as Mia Kirch got 23rd place in 22:19.6.
Isabelle Cannizzo clinched it by finishing 51st in the team standings in 23:33.8. CBA’s boys team was 11th out of 14 teams at Marathon as Joel Gaffney was 19th in the team race (21st overall) in 18:54.9.
