CENTRAL NEW YORK – When the West Genesee cross country teams met up with Fayetteville-Manlius and Cicero-North Syracuse last Tuesday at Oneida Shores Park, most of the attention was on the other two teams, especially on the girls side.
However, the boys race belonged to Wildcats junior Peter McMahon, who continued his season-long win streak against the Hornets, the state’s no. 2-ranked Class A team, and helped state no. 19-ranked WG defeat the Northstars 19-37 to salvage a split of the overall meet after it lost 20-41 to F-M.
Speeding to a time of 16 minutes, 4.4 seconds, McMahon was nearly a full minute ahead of the Hornets’ Anthony Otis, who was second in 16:52.5 as F-M swept the second through seventh spots.
WG’s top three runners – McMahon, Kevin Moser (17:39.7) and eighth-grader Michael Gomes (17:41.2) – all were ahead of the Northstars’ Ashton Murdock, who posted 17:57.4. Then Aidan Walsh finished in 18:08.5 and Max Broccoli posted 18:28.5.
Over in the girls race, the Wildcats were led by eighth-grader Claire Griffin, who posted a time of 20:37.7, but that put her 12th overall behind eight F-M and three C-NS runners.
The Hornets beat WG 15-50 and C-NS topped them 17-41, with Zoe Maupin getting a time of 21:00.4 ahead of Peyton Long (21:35.7), Chloe Fietz (22:09.1) and Karolina Lata (23:12.0).
Other teams were in action a day later, including Marcellus, who held the no. 15 ranking in the boys state Class C poll.
Sweeping Mexico 17-63, the Mustangs were led by Caeden Cox, who crossed the finish line in 19:05 ahead of Nate Alexander’s 19:12. Kieran Capozzi was third in 19:32 as Gabe Hoag (20:06) beat out Nolan Manahan (20:19) for fifth place.
Westhill managed a split of its meet with Christian Brothers Academy, with the boys Warriors prevailing 24-37.
In that race, Brandon Mulholland got a time of 15:55, second to the 15:39 from CBA’s Joseph McMahon. Then Brian Allen, fourth in 16:54, led a pack of Westhill runners that included Brian Kenny (17:03), Edward Popp (18:06) and Bryce Burdick (18:14) in the scoring spots.
The Westhill girls lost 24-31 to CBA in a race where Ellie Thornton, in 19:43, was second to the Brothers’ Bella Cannizzo (19:32). Angie Mesa-Espinosa was fourth in 20:40 and Kemery Sanborn was sixth in 20:57.
Jordan-Elbridge saw its top girls runner, Vassi Klock, tear to victory in a time of 20:04 in last Wednesday’s race against Cazenovia, though the Lakers swept the rest of the top 10 on the way to beating the Eagles 15-51.
Moving to last weekend’s large-scale meets, In the Girls Varisty A-1 race in the McQuaid Invitational in Rochester, Klock got to the top 10, taking eighth place in 19:26.4.
Westhill’s girls were 11th in the team standings while Skaneateles, with just four runners, had Lucy Fleckenstein take 39th place in 21:23.4, three spots ahead of Tobi DiRubbo’s 21:30.6.
McMahon and his West Genesee teammates were in the Bob Bradley Premier race and McMahon finished 10th in 15:30.9, with Moser (16:56.2) just ahead of Gomes (17:05.8). In the girls Premier race, Griffin finished 34th in 20:04.9, while Maupin (20:36.8) also had a top-50 effort.
Much closer to Homer, the Marcellus girls finished a close second to Cazenovia in the Tully Invitational, earning 38 points to the Lakers’ 32.
Sophia Maum finished ninth in 22:35 flat, with Virginia Lucchetti 10th in 22:38.6. Heidi Steigerwald made her way to 16th place in 23:50.7 as Alyssa McShane (24:07.0) and Chloe Mack (24:15.4) also cracked the top 20.
The boys Mustangs took third place behind host Tully and C-NS, with Cox getting sixth place in 18:02.5. Alexander was 14th in 19:07.2, while Hoag (19:43.4) was just ahead of Zach Lester (19:48.8) and Keiran Capozzi finished in 20:11.7.
