All seems in place for the Christian Brothers Academy girls cross country team heading into next Saturday’s Section III Class B championships at Vernon-Verona-Sherrill.
After an undefeated regular season, the state Class B no. 5-ranked Brothers pulled away from the field during Wednesday’s Onondaga High School League Liberty division championships at Long Branch Park.
What was more, CBA swept both individual titles, with Olivia Morganti joined at the top of the standings by Riley Nash, who prevailed in the boys race.
Morganti was so dominant in the girls race that her time of 18 minutes, 49.4 seconds would have placed her in the top 25 of the boys event. As it was, Morganti beat Chittenango’s McKenzie Dombroski (20:34 flat) by nearly two minutes.
Nash, meanwhile, had a much closer race, but in exactly 17:07, he was still comfortably in front at the line, more than 10 seconds ahead of Skaneateles’ Caleb Bender, who was second in 17:17.3.
No one could get close to CBA on the girls side as the Brothers had 29 points and Chittenango was second with 81 points. Westhill finished third with 94 points.
Behind Morganti and Dombroski, the Brothers’ Cory Knox got third place in 20:40.2, while Bri Pucci was fifth in 21:01 flat and Lea Kyle got sixth place in 21:09.9.
Supporting that great quartet, Mia Kirch had a 14th-place finish in 21:48.7. Annie Toole got to 25th place in 22:41.4, while Isabella Cannizzo was 39th in 23:41.8.
Even with Nash doing so well, the CBA boys team had to settle for fourth place in its OHSL Liberty race with 107 points, though it wasn’t far from the close race at the top as Skaneateles (81 points) held off Hannibal (87 points) and Westhill (88 points).
Zach Medicis needed exactly 17:49 to make his way to sixth place, chasing Nash. Joel Gaffney was 14th in 18:19.4, with Adam Kantor 33rd in 19:32.7 as Michael McMahon was 53rd in 20:26.7 and Teck Nash posted 21:15.7.
A day earlier, in the OHSL Patriot division championships at Tully, Manlius-Pebble Hill and Bishop Grimes both ran, with some fine individual efforts.
The Trojans’ Mathias Deldique was 10th in the boys race in 19:18 flat, with teammate Dan Braverman 19th in 19:55.6. Will Markwood finished 37th in 21:18.0 as Grimes had Robbie Finger gain 29th place in 20:39.3.
In the girls race, Grimes had four runners finish in the top 40, led by Alicia Kelly, who was 26th in 25:18.1. Sarah Cone was 30th in 25:48.9, two spots ahead of Jaiden Eallonardo (26:06.6) as Isabella Brisson posted 26:51flat.
