Each of the Liverpool cross country teams earned third-place finishes during t Saturday’s Nike New York/Northeast Regional championships at Bowdoin Park.
And due to its season-long work, along with the strong finishes here, the girls Warriors earned an at-large berth in the Nike Cross Nationals, to take place this Saturday in Portland, Oregon.
Only four schools in state history have managed to earn multiple Nike Nationals berths on the boys and girls sides from New York State. Liverpool joins Fayetteville-Manlius, Saratoga Springs and Shenendehowa in that elite group.
Once atop the state Class A rankings this fall, it wasn’t surprising that the Liverpool girls advanced. With 91 points at Bowdoin Park, the Warriors were comfortably ahead of most of the 19-team field.
Only Saratoga, who with 63 points edged Fayetteville-Manlius (65 points) for the top spot, did better, with the Blue Streaks (running as Kinetic XC) edging the Hornets just as it did at the New York State Public High School Athletic Association meet two weeks earlier.
Jenna Schulz needed 18 minutes, 21.2 seconds to make it to sixth place in the individual regional race, while Madison Neuner finished 10th in 18:34.4.
In all, six of the top 10 finishers were from Section III as F-M’s Claire Walters was second, Tully’s Brooke Rauber fourth, Clinton’s Eva Borton eighth and CBA’s Olivia Morganti ninth.
Behind Schulz and Neuner, Liverpool had Sydney Carlson get 13th place in the team standings (22nd overall) in 19:19.6, with Windsor Ardner 24th among team runners (36th overall) in 19:47.6.
Emily Neuner made her way to 45th place in the team event in 20:31.6, two spots ahead of Gabby McCarthy (20:33.2) as Isabella Brancato had a time of 21:14.8.
When the boys regional race was run, Liverpool would also earn third place, its total of 126 points well clear of fourth-place Corning (157 points), trailing only F-M, who won with 28 points, and state Class B champion Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake (67 points) in second place.
Nathan Reeves led the Warriors, getting to 13th place in the individual standings, and seventh among team runners, in a clocking of 16:25.8. Among Section III runners, only the F-M quartet of Garrett Brennan, Geoff Howles, Sam Otis and Matt Tripp did better.
What pulled the Warriors up was the likes of Jake McGowan, who was 23rd in the team standings (41st overall) in 16:59.1, while Carter Rodriguez, in 17:07 flat, edged Nick Brancato (17:07.1) for 28th place in the team event.
Trailing them, Spencer Ruediger was 39th in the team standings in 17:18.5, with T.J. Praschunus 62nd in 17:35.2 and Ryan Cartwright finishing in 18:20.1.
