CENTRAL NEW YORK – The opening week of area high school cross country culminated with several teams going to Saturday’s Vernon-Verona-Sherrill Invitational, held on the same course where Section III and state championships will take place in November.
West Genesee would have quite a good showing in boys Race 4 at VVS, holding off Liverpool, 46 points to 59, for the team title in that field of 14 and getting an individual victory from Peter McMahon.
In 17 minutes, 14.4 seconds, the Wildcats senior beat the runner-up, Norwood-Norfolk’s Dominic Fiacco (17.54.4), by exactly 40 seconds, while Kevin Moser made his way to fourth place in 18:14 flat.
Casey Conmy, in a time of 18:52.1, was just outside the individual top 10, while Max Broccoli gained 12th place in 18:56.6 and Connor Moore, getting 18th place in 19:25.9, clinched WG’s team win.
Earlier, in girls Race 4, the Wildcats, even with a short-handed lineup, had 70 points, just two behind Norwood-Norfolk’s 68 as Liverpool was third with 73 points.
Junior Peyton Long led WG, getting to seventh place in 22:03.1. Claire Griffin finished 13th in 22:56.3, one spot ahead of Zoe Maupin’s 23:16 flat as Karolina Lata (23:52.5), Andrea Conklin (24:13.8) and Rebecca Dickey (24:15.3) all were in the individual top 25.
Westhill was in Race 3, finishing sixth on the boys side and seventh on the girls side. Drew O’Reilly finished fourth in the boys race in 17:11.8, but no other Warrior was able to crack the top 20 as, on the girls side, Stella Napolitano had the best finish, 26th among team runners (34th overall) in 23:49.9.
OHSL teams got underway earlier in the week, including Skaneateles, who ran into Cazenovia last Wednesday, with the other Laker side winning both the boys and girls races.
In the boys race, Aidan Ward gave Skaneateles a second-place finish in 18:27, trailing only the 18:11 from Cazenovia’s Branden McColm. Cazenovia swept the rest of the top five ahead of Mike Galbato’s 20:17 as Ethan Leubner posted 20:59 and Sam Coleman finished in 21:50.
The Skaneateles girls lost 17-42 to Cazenovia, who swept the top four positions led by Olivia Ruddy’s 20:22. Tobi DiRubbo, in 21:51.5, edged Lucy Fleckenstein (21:51.6) for fifth place to pace Skaneateles, with Annabel Wells eighth in a clocking of 23:05
Marcellus defeated Mexico with a sweep led by Nolan Manahan’s top time of 18:50 flat. Liam Eldridge was second in 18:54.6, with Nate Alexander (19:02.8) third. Zach Lester, fourth in 19:11.5, beat out Kolton Finarty (19:30.0), Evan Fullagar (19:23.1) and Kieran Capozzi (19:35.1).
Then, when it went to VVS, it edged out Skaneateles for ninth place in Race 2, though Ward finished 19th among team runners for the Lakers in 19:11.1, well ahead of the Mustangs’ best times of 20:36.1 from Lester and 20:39.6 from Alexander.
Jordan-Elbridge edged Weedsport 27-28 in a three-team match where it lost 18-42 to Cato-Meridian. Peyton Bates had a time of 20:54 for the Eagles, with Connor Boylan’s 24:51 edging Alex Coomber’s 24:53.
Solvay had a three-team race with Hannibal and Phoenix, dropping a close 27-28 decision to the Firebirds while falling to the Warriors 19-36.
Individually, Max Overend had the fastest time of 21:02.88 for the Bearcats. Aaron Trendell fnished in 21:29.19 as Jack Burke (24:30.56), Jack Haskell (25:06.27) and Anthony Brusa (27:01.43) followed.
