A cross country season special in its own way concluded for Cicero-North Syracuse and Liverpool with high-profile races and mixed results on Nov. 7, with the Warriors getting a sweep at Baldwinsville and the Northstars giving battle to Fayetteville-Manlius.
For the girls Northstars, sophomore Kate Putman earned a hard-fought victory against F-M’s top runner, Hannah Kaercher. On the Hornets’ home course, Putman finished in 19 minutes, 11.3 seconds to Kaercher’s 19:14 flat.
Even with that, F-M was able to claim five of the top seven spots to win the race 22-36, with Marissa Navarra’s fifth-place 20:22.5 beaten out by the Hornets’ Debbie Lucchetti (19:56.3) and Izzy Sullivan (20:08.6).
Gabby Putman made her way to eighth place in 20:40.4, with Allison Newton 10th in 21:08.6. Morgan Kingdeski, in 22:14.2, was ahead of Kate Capone (22:19.3), Katy Harbold (22:25.7) and Cameron Sisk (22:42.0).
Moving to the boys race, C-NS got a bit closer overall, yet still took a 23-33 defeat, with Matt LeClair posting 17:18.4 to lead the Northstars, though it was far behind the swift winning 16:08.9 from the Hornets’ Peyton Geehrer.
Evan Romano battled his way to fifth place in 18:01.7 and Edwin Hirsh finished sixth in 18:11.9. Jacob Schmid was ninth in 18:39.5. Zach Bergman, in 19:05.5, led a pack just outside the top 10 that included Ashton Murdock (19:06.8), Owen Greco (19:25.1), Aidan Thompson (19:56.8) and Aaron Dunn (21:39.7).
Meanwhile, at Durgee Junior High School, Liverpool’s girls swept the top eight spots in a 15-50 romp over Baldwinsville as the boys pulled away from the Bees to win 22-33.
No one in the girls race got close to Sydney Carlson, who tore to a time of 19:03.8, more than a minute and a half ahead of the 20:44.9 posted by Eva Woodworth.
‘Lauren Purvis finished third in 21:09.2, with Kara Nash (21:25.6) and Kaleigh Buck (21:36.5) also in the top five. Meghan Moyer, sixth in 21:41.7, topped the 21:53.4 from Addison Ziegler and the 21:53.6 from Taylor Page.
Ryan Hagan nearly won the boys race for Liverpool, his 16:29.8 less than seconds behind the 16:25 flat from B’ville’s Colin Delaney.
Then the Warriors took the lead when Jake McGowan got third place in 16:49,9, Ryan Cartwright was fourth in 16:52.4 and Carter Rodriguez was fifth in 17:03.9.
And the victory was clinched when Charlie Pruschunus (17:56.7) and Jack Sherlock (18:01.3) secured top-10 finishes.
A hoped-for Salt City Athletic Conference Metro division meet set for this Saturday at Long Branch Park was canceled when COVID-19 cases rose and led to more restrictions on, among other things, mass gatherings.
