A decade and a half ago, the Fayetteville-Manlius cross country teams began to make its name with the times they posted and the victories they attained at the Manhattan Invitational.
Every October since, the winning has continued, and did so again for the state Class A no. 1-ranked girls Hornets as its top four runners all finished in the top 12 of the featured Eastern States Championships last Saturday at Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx.
This time around, the F-M girls, led by Claire Walters, earned four of the top 11 spots on its way to 64 points overall. Jacksonville, Florida’s Bolles was second with 122 points and Liverpool was third with 165 points.
Walters beat everyone in the 103-runner field with her time of 13 minutes, 45.9 seconds on the 2.5-mile Van Cortlandt Park course except North Rockland’s Katelyn Tuohy, the nation’s top-ranked runner, who won in 13:33.2.
Phoebe White made her way to eighth place in 14:43.1, just ahead of Grace Kaercher, who was ninth in 14:58.3. Debbie Lucchetti, finishing 34th in 15:59 flat, clinched the team win as Amelia Amack was 41st in 16:08.7 and Ani Syderowych posted 16:40.2.
Meanwhile, the F-M boys, also no. 1 in its state rankings, did best among New York State sides, but did not win its Eastern States Championship, settling for sixth place in a 20-team field with 182 points as Rhode Island’s LaSalle Academy (77 points) won.
Individually, Peyton Geehrer had a strong race for the Hornets, going 12:26.1 to finish fourth as Allentown’s Liam Murphy won the race in 12:15.2, barely 10 seconds ahead of Geehrer.
Sam Otis just missed the top 10, getting 11th place in 12:44.5, but no other F-M runner cracked the top 50 as Geoff Howles was 52nd in 13:28.1, just ahead of Jack Altimonda (13:29.6) in 54th place. James Peden finished 59th in 13:23.3.
Jamesville-DeWitt ran in the boys Varsity C race, where it finished 16th out of 26 teams. The Red Rams’ top three runners finished close to each other as Nate Rindfuss, in 14:34.4, was one spot ahead of Ahviere Reese (14:35.4) and Brian Hulbert posted 14:40.4.
As for the girls Red Rams, it finished 17th out of 28 sides in its Varsity A race, Madeline Foss making her way to 58th place in the individual standings in 17:21.2 as Katie Sizing was 94th in 18:22.3.
