After a brief hiatus, the Fayetteville-Manlius cross country teams raced again last Saturday against visiting Liverpool, and it almost led to defeat on one side.
The boy s Hornets did hold off the Warriors 26-29 as Peyton Geehrer led everyone, his time of 16 minutes, 16 seconds well clear of the runner-up 17:01 from Liverpool’s Ryan Hagan.
Daniel Patrick got third place in 17:13, and when the Warriors earned the next two spots, F-M needed to answer – and did.
It took Jackson Mathews getting sixth place in 17:29, with Anthony Otis seventh in 17:57 and Trevor Kurkin ninth in 18:21 to fend off Liverpool’s challenge.
In recent years, the F-M-Liverpool girls races had featured the combined talents of Claire Walters and Jenna Schulz, who were now teammates at North Carolina State.
Both were gone now, and F-M handled this edition 15-48 with a top-five sweep paced once more by Hannah Kaercher’s winning time of 19:08.
Deborah Lucchetti, in 19:49, claimed the race for the runner-up spot as Grace Kaercher and Izzy Sullivan both posted 20:01 and Amelia Amack was fifth in 20:16. Lejla Borcilo was seventh in 20:47 and Ava Beecher eighth in 21:15, with Ani Sydorowych (21:20) also getting a top-10 finish.
That same day, Jamesville-DeWitt won 23-35 over Cortland in the boys race, with Nate Rindfuss second in 18:22 to the Purple Tigers’ Jared Valentin (17:59). Ashton Corona was fourth (19:02), James Hillers fifth (19:17) and Hudson Groat sixth in 19:27. Anthony Cawley (19:59) also had a top-10 finish.
Earlier in the week, East Syracuse Minoa faced Cortland, with the girls Spartans sweeping to a 15-50 victory and the boys holding off the Purple Tigers 25-33.
Elena Vespi won the girls race for the Spartans in 22:39, well clear of the 23:42 from Ainsley McKenna. Taylor Hoffman finished in 23:53 ahead of Arieanna Markes (28:30), Allyanna O’Brien (28:37), Lauren Rihinen (28:38) and Desiree McGarrity (32:31).
ESM’s boys overcame a 1-2 finish by Valentin (18:33) and Joe Cataldo (18:44) as Spencer Carnival finished third in 19:19, just ahead of Tom Walters (19:22) and John Courcy (19:23). Casey Engineri finished in 19:31.
Racing again Saturday, ESM got swept by Auburn 19-38 on the girls side, 15-43 on the boys side, with the Maroons claiming the top four finishers in each race.
Courcy led the boys, running to fifth in 19:34 as Carnival was seventh in 19:46. For the ESM girls, Mary Roach finished fifth in 23:01, leading Vespi (23:19), Hoffman (23:29) and McKenna (23:46).
Going head-to-head last Wednesday afternoon, Manlius-Pebble Hill got the best of Bishop Grimes in their boys race, the Trojans beating the Cobras 21-40.
Will Markwood won the individual race for MPH, his time of 18:11 just clear of the 18:21 from Grimes’ Sean Moran as Oliver Dreyfus was third in 18:42 and J.J. Braverman fourth (19:47) for the Trojans.
Grimes had Robbie Finger finish fifth in 21:37 and Nathan Schultz post 22:36, but four MPH runners were in between, Sun-Jin Sah (21:44) ahead of Jacob Temes (21:55), Evan Zimmerman (21:56) and Oliver Hewett (22:09).
Then MPH faced Cazenovia on Friday, where in the boys race Markwood won in 17:59, two seconds ahead of the Lakers’ Quinn Smith, while Dreyfuss was third in 19:07 and Braverman fifth in 19:26. Still, the Trojans lost 27-32.
Christian Brothers Academy faced Chittenango on Saturday. On the girls side, the Brothers were triumphant, taking out the Bears 18-37.
Bella Cannizzo, winning the race in 20:13, led a top-four CBA sweep. Kayla Newman was second in 22:04, with Mary Sullivan third in 22:34 and Abby Nash fourth in 22:48. Annie Toole was eighth in 24:49.
The CBA boys lost 28-31 to Chittenango, though Michael McMahon, in a time of 16:47, beat the Bears’ Caleb LeBlanc (18:04) by more than a minute, with Cooper Groat third in 18:47 and Joe McMahon fifth in 19:20.
