CENTRAL NEW YORK – Within a span of 48 hours, the Fayetteville-Manlius cross country teams would get two early-season opportunities to remind everyone why it still loomed over all other Central New York programs.
First the Hornets swept a strong West Genesee side. Then it went to Friday’s Vernon-Verona-Sherrill Invitational and, on the course where the state championships will take place in November, got a victory in the girls race and an individual boys victory from Nolan McGinn.
At West Genesee, When F-M’s girls won 15-47, it was led by a new face, freshman Delilah Pandori-Howell, who blazed her way to a time of 19 minutes, 51.1 seconds on the Camillus Middle School course to equal that of Camille Ryan.
2021 state Class A champion Izzie Sullivan, in 19:51.2, ran with Pandori-Howell and Ryan, while Claire McDonald was third in 20:33.2. Jordan Giannetti (20:37.7) and Maria Khalifeh (20:40.7) completed a top-six Hornets sweep.
A much closer boys race was won 26-31 by the Hornets largely because it had a 1-2 individual sweep. McGinn pulled away from everyone to win in a quick 16:34.3 as Will Ditre took second place in 17:25.9.
Ben Prendergast made his way to fourth place in 19:24.7 to edge WG’s Mason Doran (19:28.8), and Kyler Patrick further helped with a seventh-place time of 19:42.6.
When F-M appeared in the Varsity ‘A’ portion of the VVS meet on Friday, the girls Hornets had four of the top eight girls finishers and, with 27 points, held off East Aurora (34 points) to claim victory.
Sullivan’s 19:32.9 was second to East Aurora’s Emilia O’Leary (19:10.5), while Ryan took third in 19:49 flat and Pandori-Howell earned fourth place in 19:51.6. Khalifeh ran her way to eighth place in 20:22.8 as Giannetti (20:47.2), McDonald (20:53.1) and Ava Beecher (21:39.6) were just outside the top 10.
While F-M’s boys could not match that success, taking fourth place on the team side, McGinn ran away from everyone in the individual portion, tearing to a time of 15:58.6, well clear of the 16:49.8 from Lakeland/Panas’ Bobby Mayclim.
Ditre ran well, too, earning 10th place in 17:53.7, eighth among team runners. Patrick was 22nd among team runners in 19:20.3 ahead of Ben Prendergast (20:04.7) and Jack Prendergast (20:36.9).
Also running last Wednesday, Jamesville-DeWitt swept Nottingham. The 15-50 win on the girls side featured Meghana Reddy win in 22:33 over the Bulldogs’ Helen Zhe-Heimerman (23:02), with Rebecca Mendez-Squier (23:54), Neve Gordon (25:14) and Norah Kirch (25:23) also in the top five.
J-D’s boys also beat Nottingham, though by a closer 26-30 margin. The Bulldogs went 1-2 before Ryan Carter got third place in 18:08, leading a pack that included Peter Drew (18:38), Paul Fischi (19:04) and Joseph Lore (19:17).
The Red Rams then moved to the VVS meet where Ryan Carter was 20th among team runners (23rd overall) in 19:14.1), just ahead of Peter Drew’s 19:30.4 as Paul Fischi (19:55.5) also had a top-40 finish.
Elsewhere at VVS, Bishop Grimes girls runner Edy Livingston stood out, making her way to 10th place with a clocking of 20:44.2 as J-D had Reddy, in 23:12.6, beat out Mendez-Squier (24:57.6), Kirch (24:59.0) and Gordon (25:06.4). Manlius Pebble Hill boys runner Johnathan Howard had a time of 20:53.3 to take 51st place.
