VERONA – What could prove an historic season for the Cicero-North Syracuse girls cross country team began last Saturday at a location ultimately important to everything it wants to accomplish.
The Northstars joined dozens of other sides for the Vernon-Verona-Sherrill Invitational, where in November both the Section III and New York State Public High School Athletic Association championships will take place.
Competing in Race 2 right after Fayetteville-Manlius prevailed in Race 1, C-NS easily claimed the top spot on the team side, its 31 points clear of runner-up Bronxville’s 76 points as Baldwinsville (101 points) was third.
Even more important was seeing senior Kate Putman win the individual event, her time of 18 minutes, 35.9 seconds faster than the 18:40.1 put up by F-M’s Izzie Sullivan, the defending state champion, earlier that morning.
Gabby Putman made her way to third place in 19:53.1, while the trio of eighth-grader Sophia Graham, sophomore Katy Harbold and senior Marissa Navarra ran together.
Graham impressed with her time of 21:21.8 which put her 10th overall, eighth among team runners, and beat out the 21:23.8 from Harbold and 21:26.3 from Navarra.
C-NS saw its boys team finish fourth in Race 2 at VVS behind B’ville, Vestal and Auburn, with Ashton Murdock finishing 12th among team runners (11th overall) in 18:25.2 and Justin Asch 15th on the team side in 18:48 flat. Tyler Graham was 30th overall in 19:39.2.
Liverpool was also at the VVS Invitational, part of Race 4 on the girls side as the Warriors, with 73 points, were a close third behind Norwood-Norfolk’s 68 and West Genesee’s 70.
Meghan Moyer had the top individual race for Liverpool, claiming eighth place in 22:20.6, just ahead of teammate Taylor Page, who got ninth in 22:23.5.
Addyson Graham was 14th among team runners (16th overall) in a clocking of 23:22.5 as Charlotte Warner took 20th in the team event in 23:54.4, four spots ahead of the 24:16 flat from Kaitlin Hotaling.
Later, in the boys Race 4, Liverpool got close to victory, its 59 points beating everyone in the 14-team field except West Genesee, who prevailed with 46 points.
Michael Purvis earned sixth place in 18:40.3, two places ahead of Jacob Makhlouf’s 18:44.7 in eighth. Joshua Vang made it to 13th place in 18:57.4, with Brady Ruediger 15th in 19:14.4 and Austin Ziegler 17th in 19:24.4 as Andrew Corrigan (19:32.9) claimed 19th place.
Now Liverpool and C-NS will open their respective league schedules against one another at Long Branch Park on Wednesday afternoon.
