Whether it was Jamesville-DeWitt on the boys side or Christian Brothers Academy on the girls side, area cross country teams swept the top spots in last Saturday’s Section III Class B championships at Chittenango High School.
It didn’t stop there, either, as in boys Class C the Brothers’ Riley Nash was the individual champion and qualified for this weekend’ s state meet at Sunken Meadow State Park on Long Island, with East Syracuse Minoa standout Nick Berg also making the cut.
In the boys Class B sectional race, J-D pulled away from 13 other teams, winning with 52 points, well clear of runner-up New Hartford, who won a tie with Cortland for second place, though both had 112 points.
Individually, Berg got closest to the front as, in exactly 18 minutes, 33 seconds, he finished second, only behind New Hartford’s Josh Farmer, who won in 18:09.8.
Then J-D’s Nick Mannion took third place in 18:49.7, beginning the Red Rams’ charge as it would produce seven of the top 20 finishers in the team standings.
Fidel Martinez got 10th place in 19:32.7 for the Rams, with Kaleel Boykins finishing 12th in 19:45.3. Michael Sizing earned 13th place in 19:51.1, beating out Ahviere Reese, who was 14th in 19:53 flat.
Collin Rivercomb, in 20:18.7, was exactly one second ahead of Brian Hulbert (20:19.7) in 19th place, while Luke Hobika made his way to 27th place in 20:39.5.
ESM had no other runner besides Berg in the top 25 of the team standings. Marcus Evans did take 28th place in 20:42.2, with Michael Sanders (21:08.8) ahead of Spencer Carnival (21:15.2) in 35th place as Casey Engineri was 40th in 21:27.2.
Later, in the Class C boys sectional race, Nash gave CBA another title as, in a time of 18:31.6, he held off Adirondack’s Tyler Flauvelle (18:33.3) by less than two seconds at the finish line.
When Medicis finished sixth in 19:21.7, he grabbed the fifth and final spot for sectional runners outside team champion Westhill, so he goes to the state meet with Nash, Flauvelle, Caleb Bender (Skaneateles) and Patrick Hall (Hannibal).
As a team, CBA was fifth overall because it did not have much depth beyond its three top-10 finishers. Behind Nash and Medicis, Joel Gaffney finished 10th in 19:29.7, but Michael McMahon (21:29.7) was back in 47th place.
It was far different for CBA in the girls sectional Class B race, where despite a tough challenge from Camden, the Brothers, with 35 points, edged the Blue Devils (40 points) for the victory, J-D taking fourth place with 105 points and ESM sixth.
Olivia Morganti was, again, a sectional individual champion, no one able to keep pace with her as, in a time of 20:13.5, she was more than half a minute ahead of Camden’s Elizabeth Lucason (20:46.8).
But with the Blue Devils claiming four of the top eight individual spots, CBA needed to hang close, which it did with Deja Jones getting fifth place in the team event (sixth overall) in 22:01 flat, Cory Knox two spots behind in 22:18.6 and Lea Kyle 10th in the team event (11th overall) in 22:55.1.
Ultimately, the Brothers’ fifth runner, Bri Pucci, saved it, as she finished in 23:39.4, nine spots ahead of Camden’s fifth runner, Sydney Coleman (24:17.6), while Mia Kirch finished in 23:43.9.
J-D did see Sophia Vinciguerra make her way to fifth place in 22:00.1 and claim a spot in the state meet, but no other Red Rams runner could join her.
Madeline Foss finished 12th overall and 11th in the team standings in 23:15.3. Kathryn Sizing was 22nd on the team side in 24:17.9 as Cora Gilbert (25:07.7) was two spots ahead of Stella Heflin (25:17.4).
ESM’s best runner, Emma Biel, was 20th in the team race and 21st overall in 24:16.4. Taylor Hoffman was 32nd in 25:06.4, with Mary Roach 37th in 25:25 flat. Ally O’Brien (26:27.1), Elena Vespi (26:45.6) and Hannah Wright (26:48.5) were further back.
