VERONA – Two months separate the Fayetteville-Manlius cross country teams from first going to Vernon-Verona-Sherrill and returning with Section III and state Class A championships on the line.
First, the Hornets would compete in the VVS Invitational, where in Varsity Race 1 the F-M girls, with 24 points, easily outdistanced runner-up East Aurora (77 points) for the top spot.
Izzie Sullivan, the defending individual state champion, began her sophomore season by going 18 minutes, 40.1 seconds, pulling away from senior teamamte Hannah Kaercher, who was second in 19:14.6.
Maria Khalifeh, who was third in 20:05.9, continued the Hornets’ surge. Isabella Adrian finished eighth in 20:43.6 as freshman Camille Ryan got to 10th place in 20:50.6.
It was far closer in the boys Race 1, but F-M won here, too, earning 50 points to hold off the 56 earned by runner-up Webster Thomas, from Section V.
And it took a 1-2 finish from the Hornets’ duo of Nolan McGinn and Anthony Otis as McGinn, in a time of 15:42.9, drew clear of Otis, who still held on to second in 16:22 flat.
Ben Perry was close behind them, getting to fifth place in 17:43.0, while Cooper Dereszynski finished 18th among team runners (19th overall) in 18:39.2 and Davey George clinched the team win by getting to 24th place in 19:12.1.
Jamesville-DeWitt was in Race 6 on both sides, finishing fifth in both the boys and girls divisions.
To lead the boys Red Rams, Connor Clarkson made his way to 13th place in 17:41.3, just ahead of teammate Alex Martinez, who ran to 14th in 17:43.8.
Isaiah Sternberg (20:04.1), Peter Drew (20:06.1) and Hudson Groat (20:06.6) all finished in the top 40 as, on the girls side for J-D, Molly McIntyre was 22nd among team runners in 24:17.3, one spot ahead of Megan O’Malley’s 24:28.7.
Before all this, Christian Brothers Academy had its season opener last Wednesday against Homer, prevailing 22-35 on the boys side and 23-32 in the girls race.
On the boys side for CBA, Charlie Raymond’s time of 15:40 beat out Joe McMahon’s 15:41 for individual honors. Matt Craybas finished fifth at 18:20 as Decklan Reed got seventh place in 20:41 and Will Radford (20:51) was eighth.
Moving to the girls race, Kristina Kennedy, in 20:03, was a close second to Homer’s Anna Aldrich (19:55), with Adele Sommers third in 20:09 and Mia Ludington fourth in 20:25. Abby Nash was sixth in 21:12 and Grace Fletcher, in 21:49, made it to eighth place.
East Syracuse Minoa not only opens its league schedule this week, it also hosts its own ESM Invitational on Saturday morning at 8 a.m.
