ONONDAGA COUNTY – Cross country teams from West Genesee stepped into post-season action before other local sides, and would both snare top-five finishes from Wednesday’s Salt City Athletic Conference championships at Baldwinsville.
On the girls side, the Wildcats finished third in both the SCAC Metro and overall standings, in each instance trailing the top two as Cicero-North Syracuse was first and Fayetteville-Manlius second.
Freshman Chloe Fietze led WG’s girls, her time of 19 minutes, 31.7 seconds putting her in 12th place, just ahead of teammate Peyton Long, who was 13th in 19:43.5.
The rest of the top WG runners were close behind, Claire Griffin going to 19th place in 20:24.8 as Zoe Maupin was 21st in 20:29.5 and Rebecca Dickey stepped up, finishing 22nd in 20:29.6 ahead of Andrea Conklin (21:04.4) and Karolina Lata, who posted 21:31.7.
Meanwhile, the Wildcats’ best individual performance belonged on the boys side to Peter McMahon, who tore to a time of 15 minutes, 46.7 seconds to finish third in the Metro division and fourth overall, not far from the winning 15:27.4 from B’ville’s Solomon Holden-Betts.
Right behind McMahon was fellow Senior Kevin Moser, who made his way to fifth place overall (fourth in the Metro division) in 16:28.6. Michael Gomes got to 16th place overall in 17:08.8.
Behind them, WG had Max Broccoli getting 33rd place in 17:51 flat, with Connor Moore posting 18:09.0, Mason Doran going 18:10.4 and Dillon Holzwarth finishing in 18:14.0, the Wildcats taking fifth place overall and fourth among SCAC Metro teams.
As this went on, Westhill closed its regular-season slate with a split of its meet with Chittenango, claiming a close 27-28 decision over the Bears on the boys side.
Drew O’Reilly led all individuals, his time of 16:48 nearly a full minute ahead of Chittenango’s Caleb LeBlanc (17:43). Teddy Popp was third in 18:21, with Bryce Burdick sixth in 19:38. It took Sean Finnerty finishing eighth (20:12) and Jack Pease taking ninth (20:17) to help Westhill rally and win.
On the girls side, the Warriors lost 19-43 to Chittenango, who swept the top four before Stella Napolitano took fifth place in 23:10. Ellie Thornton (23:53), Alexis Bergett (24:11) and Katelyn Sainsbury (24:22) also had top-10 finishes. –
