LIVERPOOL – In recent years, the Liverpool cross country teams had achieved plenty, but still did not possess full bragging rights over its neighbors from Cicero-North Syracuse.
All of that changed Wednesday afternoon at Long Branch Park, where in a tense girls race the Warriors were able to edge the Northstars 27-30 and the boys were able to roll to a victory.
Going first, the girls race would see Liverpool’s Taylor Page work her way in front and stay there, finishing in 20 minutes, 13.3 seconds to the 20:25.3 from C-NS’s Kennedy Jones.
Kaitlyn Hotaling gave the Warriors a third-place time of 20:43.8. The Northstars countered with Cameron Sisk finishing fourth in 20:48.4 and Sophia Graham fifth in 20:53.1.
Then Charlotte Warner crossed in sixth place for Liverpool, posting 22:06.4, only to have C-NS get Katy Harbold in seventh place in 22:15.6.
All the Northstars needed was another top-10 finisher – but the Warriors swept the rest of it to win.
Kailyn Barth led that Liverpool charge, earning eighth place in 22:38.8. Then Addison Miles got ninth place in 23:16.2 and Paige Baker, 10th in 23:21.5, clinched the Warriors’ victory.
The boys race wasn’t as close, Liverpool routing C-NS 17-43 with a clean sweep of the top four led by Brady Ruediger, who beat the 17-minute mark as he crossed the finish line in 16:59.2.
Ruediger was nearly a full minute ahead of Joshua Vang’s second-place 17:42.8. Roman Murray went 17:50 flat for third place, with Nate Aurello getting fourth place in 18:08.4.
Tyler Graham paced C-NS as he ran to fifth place in 18:14.7, with Nolan Zinsmeyer sixth (18:33.8) and Donovan Niedzwiecki sixth in 18:38.8. Rhett Andrews (18:40.6) also got to the top 10 for the Northstars in between Liverpool standouts Andrew Corrigan (18:39.1) and Mason Dineen (18:43.9).
Now both teams would find themselves at the Vernon-Verona-Sherrill Invitaitonal on Saturday, running on the same course as they would in November for the Section III and (perhaps) the state championships, too.
It was Liverpool’s boys victorious in the Varsity 1 race with 41 points to runner-up Mexico’s 54. Ruediger, in 17:00.2, was second, only behind the 16:40.7 from Beaver River’s Connor Zehr.
Vang made his way to sixth place in 17:27.3 and Murray was seventh in 17:40.5. Niedzwicki earned 12th place in 18:26.5 and Corrigan got 14th in 18:31.3, with Nate Aurelio (18:46.7) two spots ahead of Mason Dinneen (18:50.9).
Finishing second in the boys Varsity 2 race behind Guilderland, C-NS had Tyler Graham get seventh place among team runners (10th overall) in 18:07.3, with Andrews 11th on the team side in 18:21.6 and Zinsmeyer (18:52.7) in 17th.
In the first race of the morning, the Liverpool girls put up 63 points in Varsity 1, beaten only by Sayville”s total of 30 points as Page ran her way to third place in 20:17 flat, with Hotaling sixth in 20:41.4. Warner finished 16th in 22:16.2, with Barth (22:30.2) and Rose Piorkowski (22:41.3) in the team top 25 with Baker (22:50.5) and Gianna Galleli (23:19.2).
When it raced right after, C-NS’s girls took third in Varsity 2, edged out for the runner-up spot by West Genesee, though both were well behind Guilderland.
Jones finished eighth in 20:28.6, Sisk taking 11th in 20:51.8 as Harbold made her way to 15th place in 21:09.6, with Graham 24th (22:03.9) among team runners.
