Most of the area’s high school cross country teams waits until this week to start their league schedules, since Skaneateles, Marcellus, Jordan-Elbridge, Westhill and Solvay all are situated in the OHSL Liberty division.
However, West Genesee already has faced three different SCAC Metro division powers and had a Sept. 7 sweep of the Varsity 3 divisions in the Vernon-Verona-Sherrill Invitational in the books.
Swept by Fayetteville-Manlius on Sept. 4, WG found more success last Wednesday when it faced Cicero-North Syracuse and Baldwinsville on the Bees’ home course.
The girls Wildcats defeated the Bees 23-32, helped by Hannah Craybas, who finished in 21 minutes, 20 seconds as teammate Natalie Buckhout was close behind in 21:47.
C-NS swept the meet and the top seven individual spots. Freshman Kate Putman led the way, her time of 19 minutes, 13 second a full minute ahead of the 20:17 from Allison Newton, who edged out seventh-grader Gabby Putman (20:20) for that runner-up spot.
In the boys meet, WG’s Matt Bartolotta contended for the individual title, covering the Durgee Junior High School course in 16:53, beating everyone except B’ville’s Colin Delaney, who won in 16:43.
Peter McMahon, ranked second in the state among ninth-graders early this season, ran well for the Wildcats, too, grabbing fourth place in 17:20, but C-NS claimed the next five spots as WG lost 22-39 to the Bees and 25-36 to the Northstars.
WG did not run in Saturday’s East Syracuse Minoa Invitational – but two other area teams, Jordan-Elbridge and Solvay, did take part.
J-E’s Sean Dristle provided a particular highlight for the boys Eagles, finishing seventh in 17:18.2, with only five F-M runners plus ESM’s Nick Berg in front of him, the Hornets’ Peyton Geehrer having won in 15:57.7.
Overall, the J-E boys were eighth in the 28-team field, with Dristle joined in the top of the standings by Kenny Williams, who finished 15th in 17:44 flat. No other Eagles runner was in the top 60 team standings as Solvay’s Luke Dwyer finished 50th in 19:23.8.
As the J-E girls took 11th place among 23 sides at ESM, Vassianna Klock led them, the Eagles sophomore getting 17th place in 20:54.1. Hannah Fichter was 36th among team runners in 22:08.4 as Coral Uhle was 57th in 23:46.4.
