VERONA – When it really counted, the Fayetteville-Manlius girls cross country team found its way to the top.
The Hornets turned back the challenge of Cicero-North Syracuse to win yet another Section III Class A championship last Saturday at Vernon-Verona-Sherrill High School, the same venue where this week’s state meet will take place.
F-M is joined at the state meet by the Jamesville-DeWitt boys, who were victorious in Class B, along with a handful of top individuals that includes Hornets teammates Nolan McGinn and Anthony Otis.
McGinn was part of the most exciting race of the day, a Class A sectional battle where he went to the finish line neck-and-neck with Baldwinsville’s Solomon Holden-Betts after 3.1 miles on a warm, windy VVS course.
Finishing in 16 minutes, 5.8 seconds, McGinn edged Holden-Betts (16:05.9) by one-tenth of a second, by far the closest margin in any of the eight races.
Even with this, and with Otis finishing fourth in 16:39 flat, F-M still found itself finishing second in the sectional team event behind Auburn, who place five runners in the top 16 and won with 51 points to the Hornets’ 62.
Ben Perry just missed out on advancing to the state meet, taking eighth place in 17:35.8, while Will Ditre was back in 17th place (18:17.8) and Kyler Patrick (18:54.4) was 32nd.
By contrast, F-M’s girls avenged two previous defeats to C-NS even though Izzie Sullivan, in a time of 19:02.1, finished second behind the Northstars’ Kate Putman, who won in 18:46.9.
Maria Khalifeh (19:48.4), Hannah Kaercher (19:51.1) and Camille Ryan (20:00.1) finished together in the sixth through eighth spots behind Kate and Gabby Putman (who was fourth), while Isabelle Adrian clinched the victory by taking 12th place in 20:33.3 as Ava Beecher (21:03.2) and Catherine Walters (21:32.9) also finished in the top 20.
In the Class B boys race, J-D held on with 46 points to New Hartford’s 50 for the top spot, led by Connor Clarkson, who in 17:46.9 pulled away from Camden’s Jerome Seidl (17:59.0) for the individual championship.
Hudson Groat made his way to fifth place in 18:17.3, with Peter Drew eighth among team runners (ninth overall) in 18:56.8.
It took Isaiah Steinberg getting 14th place (19:19.3) and Chris Donaghue earning 18th place (19:36.2) in the team standings for the Red Rams to fend off New Hartford, who had five of the top 13. Ryan Carter finished in 19:45.9 as Paul Fischi posted 20:30.7.
On the way to a fourth-place finish in girls Class B, J-D saw Megan O’Malley lead the way, taking 23rd place overall and 18th in the team standings in 24:25.5. Rebecca Mendez Squier was 28th among team runners in 25:27 flat.
In the first race of the day, boys Class C, Christian Brothers Academy saw Charles Raymond earn a trip to the state meet by making his way to third place in 17:57.6. The Brothers were 12th out of 15 teams overall.
Later, in the girls Class C sectional race, CBA’s Mary Sullivan finished 16th in 23:05.3, with Adele Sommer close behind as she took 20th place in 23:17.8.
East Syracuse Minoa was 10th in the boys Class A race as John Courcy led the Spartans, finishing 40th among team runners in a time of 19:19.2. Ainsley Mckenna led the ESM girls in a clocking of 24:28.2.
Manlius Pebble Hill boys runner Oliver Dreyfuss finished 15th in the Class D sectional race in 19:17.2, with the girls Trojans’ Tea Hokanson getting to 20th place in 22:45.1.
