Many of the beastly elements area high school cross country teams have avoided in a majority of their 2019 races were very much present for Wednesday’s important set of meets.
Heavy rains created mud, ponds and plenty of challenges, but Skaneateles met all of them, the state Class C no. 7-ranked boys Lakers completing a 6-0 regular-season run through the OHSL Liberty National division by holding off state no. 19-ranked Jordan-Elbridge in a 25-30 decision.
J-E’s home course was inundated, but that didn’t stop the Lakers, who needed a top-three sweep to overcome the depth of the Eagles’ lineup.
Caleb Bender again led the charge, covering the J-E course in 16 minutes, six seconds. That put him nearly a full minute ahead of Matt Persampieri’s second-place 16:55 as Joe Norris finished third in 17:04.
Derek Quigley’s fourth-place 17:34 led a quintet of Eagles, with Lee Jewell fifth in 17:41. Kenny Williams got sixth place in 17:49, just ahead of Sean Dristle’s 17:50 as Colin Jewsbury was eighth in 17:57. Then Skaneateles clinched it by having Josh Reed gain ninth place in 18:04 and Connor Gell finish 10th in 18:20.
The Skaneateles girls, who improved to 5-1, also won over J-E, the 26-29 margin in large part due to the fact that Elyse Osmun returned after injury after the Lakers had used just five runners for weeks, including its lone defeat of the season to Cazenovia.
J-E’s Vassianna Klock won the individual race in 20:29, ahead of the 20:49 from Skaneateles’ Sarah Tallerico, while Hope Cross-Jaya put the Lakers in third place in 21:28.
After Hannah Fichter (21:54) and Coral Uhle (21:58) recorded top-five finishes for the Eagles, Skaneateles had Sophia Aureden finish sixth in 22:27 and Lillian Yengo get seventh place in 22:40. Osmun, in her return, earned eighth place in 23:20 to clinch it ahead of J-E’s Tatianna Parkolap (24:11) and Kendall Shaw (24:30).
Both of the Skaneateles teams went on to second-place finishes in Saturday’s Chittenango Invitational, the boys with 26 points finishing behind CBA (51 points) and the girls, with 72 points, just three behind Gouverneur’s winning 69 points.
Tallerico led the girls Lakers, getting to fifth place in 20:56.2, with Cross-Jaya seventh in 21:19.4. Yengo made it to 16th place in 22:19.2 as Aureden was 19th in 22:40.6 and Osmun got 26th place.
Bender did not run for the Skaneateles boys, so Persampieri led the charge, getting to fourth place in 17:29.3 as Norris was sixth in 17:34.9. Reed got a 10th-place clocking of 18:04.7, with Gell 13th in 18:31.5 ahead of Seamus Fogerty, who was 19th in 19:00.5.
Westhill swept its races against Phoenix 17-40 on the girls sideand 15-50 on the boys side. The state Class C no. 15-ranked girls Warriors had Liz Kessler, in 20 minutes flat, lead a top-three sweep.
Katherine Evans was second in 20:13 and Angie Mesa-Espinosa was third in 20:48. Bishop Ludden’s Sarah Thompson finished fourth in 20:52. Emily O’Reilly, in 21:32, beat out Kylie Nowicki (21:33) as Ashley Heffernan finished in 22:18.
On the boys side, Westhill, no. 6 in the state in Class C, won 15-50 as Scott MacBain, Josiah Miggiani, Mike Ferrara and Jacob Fricano all finished in 18:14, with Will Thornton, Angelo Carr and Brian Allen all finishing in 18:15. Brandon Mulholland, Justin Nowicki (both in 18:16) and Will Anderson (18:17) followed.
While all this was going on, West Genesee also dealt with the rain when it competed in last Wednesday’s Salt City Athletic Conference championships at Baldwinsville.
In the SCAC boys race, the Wildcats finished fifth overall with 171 points, also taking fifth among Metro division teams as state Class A no. 1-ranked Fayetteville-Manlius claimed the top spot.
Matt Bartolotta had a terrific race, the WG senior finishing fourth in 16:10.9, the best time outside of F-M, who swept the top three as the Hornets’ Sam Otis won in 15:44.8.
Freshman Peter McMahon made his way to 15th place in 17:19.9, while Aiden Walsh took 42nd place in 18:27.3. Ryan McMahon got 56th place in 19:06 flat, closely followed by Joe Parisi’s 19:24.3 as Sam Mosher finished in 19:58.1.
Moving to the girls SCAC race, WG also finished fifth in the Metro division, but took ninth place overall as Natalie Buckhout finished 23rd among all runners and 19th in the league race in 21:12.2.
Lauren Puchta took 39th among all team runners in 22:18.9, one spot ahead of Abby Kuppinger (22:21.6). Liz Morey posted 22:36.4 for 44th place in the team race as Janaya Jones finished in 25:57.4. Sofia Lentz, in 27:01.7. beat out Eva Murphy’s 27:03.4.
