Most autumns would feature the Cicero-North Syracuse and Liverpool cross country teams meeting in the middle of the week to settle which rival would have the upper hand.
This time, though, it was a Saturday event, the two sides gathering at Long Branch Park and, on both occasions, the Northstars emerging with a victory.
The C-NS girls had gone first, once again with Kate Putman at the forefront as the sophomore superstar went 18 minutes, 30.9 seconds, the only time under the 19-minute mark.
Going on to win, 21-39, the Northstars answered Sydney Carlson’s second-place time of 19:27 flat for the Warriors by having Marissa Navarra finish third in 19:49.4 and Gabby Putman take fourth place in 20:09.5.
In between Gabby McCarthy’s 20:18.7 and Eva Woodworth’s 21:32.2, C-NS had three consecutive finishers, Allison Newton (20:47.9) ahead of Kate Capone (21:19.7) and Katy Harbold (21:29.3), plus Cameron Sisk 10th in 21:32.6.
Liverpool did get five of the next six finishers, including Lauren Purvis going 21:37.1 to beat out the Northsars’ Morgan Kingdeski (21:37.3). Meghan Moyer, Kaleigh Buck and Addison Zeigler followed.
It was the boys race that was closer, yet still turning out 26-31 in C-NS’s favor despite a 1-2 Liverpool sweep at the top of the indivdiual standings.
Ryan Hagan, in a clocking of 16:55.4, edged out Ryan Cartwright (16:56.4) by one second and the Northstars’ R.J. Davis (16:59.7) by 3.4 seconds.
But C-NS had four consecutive finishers, starting with Davis and continuing with Matt LeClair in fourth (17:22.1), Evan Romano in fifth (17:36.0) and Jacob Schmid going 18:06 flat to finish sixth.
Zach Bergman, eighth in 18:17.6, and Edwin Hirsh, ninth in 18:24 flat, helped C-NS clinch it despite the Warriors’ Gavin Kenna finishing seventh in 18:12.9 and Jack Sherlock, in 18:26.8, leading a group of three that included charlie Praschunus (18:30.4) and Jacob Makhlouf (18:40.3) as Ashton Murdock posted 18:41.7.
Before this, Liverpool had gone through a busy two weeks, competing four times, including a meet last Wednesday at Auburn.
In the girls Warriors’ 26-31 victory, Carlson, in 19:53, finished just behind the 19:50 from Auburn’s Kyleen Brady as McCarthy was third in 20:46.
The Maroons claimed the next two spots before Woodworth finished sixth in 21:47. That led a pack of four Liverpool runners, with Purvis (22:19), Buck (22:31) and Moyer (22:44) clinching the team victory.
When the boys Warriors won 21-39 over the Maroons, Hagan claimed individual honors in 17:16, beating out Ryan Cartrwight (17:28) in second place and Auburn’s James Vasile (17:42) in third place.
Kenna and Sherlock ran together, both finishing in 18:48, while Praschunus posted an 18:55 as Makhlouf finished in 19:05 and Aiden Meyer posted 19:33.
