From its trip to Long Island, the Fayetteville-Manlius cross country teams returned with yet another state Class A championship in it possession, yet had to contend with the end of a momentous streak.
The boys Hornets’ year-long quest to atone for a narrow two-point defeat to Corning in the 2017 state meet culminated with a dominant performance Saturday at Sunken Meadow State Park, where it had five of the top 10 finishers.
Yet the F-M girls’ run of 12 consecutive state titles was stopped by a single point. The Hornets had 47 points, just behind Saratoga Springs, who prevailed with 46 points.
Each of the boys Hornets’ best runners – Geoff Howles, Matt Tripp, Garrett Brennan, Peyton Geehrer and Sam Otis – were present during the 2017 state meet at Wayne High School and felt the disappointment of having Corning finish ahead of them in the team standings.
That wouldn’t happen at Sunken Meadow, though, as F-M had five of the top eight finishers in the team standings and, with 25 points, were well clear of Corning’s runner-up total of 87 points.
Howles led the way, his time of 16 minutes, 2.3 seconds second in the individual race behind Saratoga’s Shea Weilbaker, who won in 15:52 flat. Tripp finished fourth among team runners, and sixth overall, in 16:12.5.
Brennan was right behind Tripp and took seventh place (fifth in the team race) in 16:15.9. To lock up the state title, Geehrer and Otis hit the line next to each other, with Geehrer posting 16:19.4 and Otis finishing in 16:19.7. Geehrer was seventh in the team race (eighth overall) and Otis was eighth among team runners, 10th overall.
Yakob Kelley made his way to 19th place in the team event (41st overall) in 17:01.3, while Nolan Chiles got 36th place among team runners in 17:41.7.
All of this followed a Class A state girls race as close as the Section III race was, only now it was F-M on the wrong end of a narrow decision after it edged Liverpool by that same one-point margin a week earlier.
The Hornets’ Claire Walters would, in a time of 17:42.6, finish third, just behind Saratoga’s Kelsey Chmiel (17:20.6) in second place as North Rockland star Katelyn Tuohy pulled away to win in 17:02.1.
F-M and Saratoga would stay within sight of each other. Phoebe White was fifth in the team race (ninth overall) in 18:58.8 as Hannah Kaercher was eighth in the team standings (17th overall) in 19:16.5. Saratoga had Ella Kurto fourth in the team standings (18:35.3) and Emily Bush ninth (19:26.1).
Then the Hornets took the lead when Grace Kaercher finished 12th among team runners in 19:41.6, but that proved temporary.
McKinley Wheeler (19:50.4) and Ciara Knott (19:50.9) were 16th and 17th, respectively, in the team event, beating out F-M’s Chloe Bullough (20:09.8) in 19th place and allowing Saratoga to pull it out by that single point. Lejla Borcillo was 20th in the team race in 20:15.3, 10 spots ahead of Emily Cook (20:34.5).
Meanwhile, in the girls Class B sectional race, Christian Brothers Academy,who won the state Class C title a year ago, finished third with 78 points behind Cornwall (62) and John Jay-Cross River (68) as Olivia Morganti nearly won the individual championship.
Leading most of the way, Morganti was only overtaken in the late stages by Mount Sinai’s Sarah Connelly, who would win in 18:17.7 to beat out Morganti (18:21.1) in second place.
Deja Jones was 12th in the overall standings and fifth in the team race in 19:38.6. Cory Knox was 18th among team runners in 20:25.6 as Lea Kyle (20:52.5) and Bri Pucci (21:11.6) also had top-30 team finishes. Mia Kirch finished in 21:54.2 and Isabella Cannizzo posted 23:31.3.
Jamesville-DeWitt claimed ninth place in the boys Class B state meet, led by Nick Mannion, whose 21st-place time of 17:01.8 was just behind East Syracuse Minoa’s Nick Berg, who was 20th in 17:01.4.
Elsewhere for the Red Rams, Kaleel Boykins was 18th in the team standings in 17:32.1. Ahviere Reese, in 18:13.8, was ahead of Fidel Martinez (18:25.4), Collin Rivercomb (18:49.7) and Brian Hulbert (19:21.7). In the girls Class B race, J-D’s Sophia Vinciguerra finished 46th in 20:34.3.
