After three weeks of intense preparations, the West Genesee cross country teams would compete three times in a span of six days, capped by its annual showdown with Fayetteville-Manlius.
WG’s opener had taken place back on Monday, at Long Branch Park, where Liverpool proved a formidable opponent, handling the Wildcats 22-39 in the boys race and 20-41 in the girls race.
Peter McMahon nearly won on the boys side for WG, his time of 17 minutes, 11 seconds trailing only the 16:57 put up by Liverpool’s Carter Rodriguez.
Aiden Walsh made his way to fourth place in 17:54, only to have Liverpool claim the next five spots before Justin Malinowski, in 20:13, finished.
Liverpool had more of a hold in the girls race, with just two WG runners in the top 10. Claire Griffin finished third in 21:27, just ahead of Lauren Puchta (21:37) in fourth place as the Warriors’ Sydney Carlson pulled away to win in 19:26 and Gabby McCarthy (20:53) was second.
Facing Central Square on Wednesday, WG’s boys beat the Redhawks 25-30, with McMahon pulling away to win in 18:05 and Walsh third in 19:02. Justin Malinowski, in 20:03, beat out Casey Comny (20:09) for fifth place.
The girls Wildcats lost 24-31 to the Redhawks, who placed two runners ahead of Puchta’s third-place 21:05 as Griffin was fourth in 22:54. Faith Knox, in 24:26, beat out Janaya Jones (24:44) and Sofia Lentz (25:36) for seventh place.
Then it was time to face F-M, and the Wildcats lost 19-44 on the boys side while the girls fell 15-49 to the Hornets in a race where Puchta, with a time of 21:21, was the lone WG runner in the top 10.
Meanwhile, McMahon beat all of the boys competitors except one, his 16:39 behind the 15:49 from F-M’s Peyton Geehrer as Anthony Kotlyarov emerged with a fourth-place finish in 17:33.
While all this was going on, local rivals Skaneateles and Marcellus met up, with one race quite close and the other quite lopsided.
The close girls race went 27-28 in the Mustangs’ favor as, up front, Anella Bolster finished in 21:06 to beat out the Lakers’ Hope Cross-Jaya (21:16) for the individual victory.
Heidi Steigerwald was third in 22:01 and Sophia Maum (22:30) fourth, but it took Virginia Lucchetti’s 23:51 and Alyssa McShane’s 24:09 to help Marcellus hang on. Lillian Yengo, in 23:07, led a Lakers group that included Sophia Auredan (23:25), Clare Keady (23:32) and Caroline McSwain (23:35).
By contrast, Skaneateles won the boys race 15-50 as 2019 state Class C champion Caleb Bender and Matt Persampieri each finished in 17:03, ahead of Joe Norris (17:30), Seamus Fogerty (17:55) and Will Girzadas (17:56).
For the Mustangs, Lukas Grieb (19:28) beat out Jaiden Capozzi (19:29) for top honors, but they were behind the Lakers’ duo of Aidan Ward (18:41) and Will Swartz (18:44).
Bender went from this to winning a four-team race at Tully Saturday in 16:14 over Liverpool’s Jake McGowan (16:34) as Persampieri finished third in 16:40 and Westhill had Brandon Mulholland finish eighth in 17:46 behind Morris’ 17:34.
Jordan-Elbridge had two close races against Weedsport, with the girls Eagles claiming a 27-29 decision and the boys falling 24-31 to the Warriors.
It took J-E’s duo of Vassi Klock and Hannah Fichter finishing 1-2 – Klock in 20:07, Fichter in 22:17- to withstand Weedsport getting four of the next five spots. Clara Derby was sixth in 26:22 ahead of Kendall Shaw’s 27:38.
Weedsport’s boys swept the top three ahead of Peyton Bates, who paced J-E with a time of 21:04. Lee Jewell (21:04) was close behind,, with Nolan Jackson (23:40) and Tyler Novak (23:55) also in the top 10.
