MARCELLUS – Perhaps racing at home does have some benefits.
The Marcellus boys cross country team discovered this in the course of Wednesday’s Onondaga High School League Liberty Conference championships, contested on the familiar grounds of Marcellus Park.
In a close race for OHSL Liberty American division honors, the Mustangs, with 57 points, held off Westhill (62 points) for the top spot, with the two sides taking second and third overall behind National division champion Cazenovia.
Individually, no one got close to Warriors junior Drew O’Reilly, who tore through the Marcellus Park course in 15 minutes, 7.8 seconds, nearly a full-minute ahead of the 16:02.2 from Christian Brothers Academy’s Charles Raymond.
Both O’Reilly and Teddy Popp, who finished fifth overall in 16:28 flat, finished ahead of the top Marcellus runner, Keiran Capozzi, who got to 11th place overall in 17:01.2, seventh in the league standings.
But the Mustangs started catching up with Nate Alexander going 17:13.1 and Kolton Finarty finishing in 17:14 flat as they were ninth and 10th, respectively, in the division race and 14th and 15th overall.
Then, after the Warriors’ Bryce Burdick finished in 17:26.2, Marcellus had Liam Eldridge finish 21st overall in 17:32.8, while Zach Lester was 24th in 17:35.2. Their efforts, along with Nolan Manahan (17:44.1) and Lukas Greib (17:51.4), helped the Mustangs clinch the division race, with Evan Fullagar (17:59.2) and Alex Lostracco (18:14.3) close behind.
Behind the top Westhill runners was Sean Finnerty, who posted 18:18.1 ahead of Carter Buckman’s 18:24.5 as Carlos Ramos (18:53.5) and Jack Pease (19:10.6) were further back.
In the OHSL Liberty National race, Skaneateles finished third behind Cazenovia and Hannibal, led by senior Aidan Ward, who finished in 16:43.1, sixth overall and second only to Hannibal’s Gavin Griffin (16:27.1) in the division.
Ethan Leubner, who was 34rd among team runners in 18:21.8, led the rest of the Lakers as Michael Galbato finished in 18:29.3, Patrick Hagen posted 18:34.9 and Chip Kissel finished in 18:43 flat.
Solvay, who was fifth in the National division race, was led by Max Overend, whose 19:02.9 beat out a 19:24 flat from A.J. Trendell as Jack Burke finished in 19:39.1.
Despite having just five runners on hand, the Skaneateles girls made its way to third place overall in its OHSL Liberty race, trailing only Cazenovia and Chittenango.
And that was largely due to the efforts of freshman Lucy Fleckenstein and sophomore Tobi DiRubbo, who both contended for the individual title.
Fleckenstein went 19:00.9, narrowly missing victory on the 2.9-mile Marcellus Park course as Cazenovia’s Olivia Ruddy won in 18:55.6, just 5.3 seconds ahead, while DiRubbo was right behind, finishing third in 19:02.4.
Annabel Wells also ran well, getting to seventh place in 19:37.2, while Caroline McSwain finished in 21:05 flat and Monica Pohl posted 23:46.1.
Westhill’s girls had Stella Napolitano get 11th place in 20:12.6, with Eileen Mullen (20:31.4) beating out Ellie Thornton (20:31.8) for 15th place as Alexis Bergett posted 21:13.1. Rachel Evans (21:57.1) beat out Ashley Carter (22:07.7).
Marcellus had senior Sophia Maum make her way to 17th place in 20:38.7, with Lorelei Riefler (22:47.3) and Zoe Case (22:49.9) also finishing in the top 40.
In the boys OHSL Patriot division championships held that same day at Cato-Meridian, Jordan-Elbridge finished seventh out of 11 teams overall, led by Alex Kunz, who finished sixth in 18:32.2, and Peyton Bates, who was ninth in 19:19.4.
