This is going to be an autumn where the Cicero-North Syracuse girls cross country team hopes to place itself as a worthy challenger to the dynasty established at Fayetteville-Manilus.
And the two sides will meet on Nov. 7, two weeks after the Northstars have its annual showdown with Liverpool as part of a series of Saturday-morning showdowns that substitute for the big invitational, sectional and state meets all lost to COVID-19.
To open its season, C-NS would insert itself into Thursday’s meet between host Jamesville-DeWitt and East Syracuse Minoa, beating both of them by 15-50 margins with a record-setting effort.
Specifically, three runners broke the J-D course mark, none more emphatically than Kate Putman, who tore to victory in 18 minutes, 34 seconds, shattering the old record of 20:16 by nearly two minutes.
Pushed by Putman’s pace, Marissa Navarra, who was second in 19:50, and Allison Newton, taking third place in 20:09, also broke the course record and Gabby Putman (20:43) got close to it. Morgan Kingdeski, in 21:25, was just ahead of Kate Capone (21:26) as Katy Harbold finished in 21:45.
C-NS had its boys team prevail 16-47 over J-D and 15-50 over ESM with Matt LeClair at the forefront, LeClair finishing in 16:50 to lead the field.
R.J. Davis was second in 17:08, five seconds ahead of Evan Romano’s 17:13. Jacob Schmid had a time of 17:39 as Zach Bergman (18:14) was ahead of Ashton Murdock (18:18) and Evan Breitbeck (18:24).
This group of Saturday meets for C-NS starts this weekend against Baldwinsville at Oneida Shores as Liverpool would open Monday against West Genesee before going Saturday to a mini-invitational hosted by Tully which also features Skaneateles and Westhill.
