CENTRAL NEW YORK – Things had started quite well for the West Genesee cross country teams when they both went to the Cato-Meridian Invitational on Sept. 9 and emerged victorious in both individual races.

Leading a victorious girls Wildcats squad, Chloe Feitze won in 20 minutes, 32.4 seconds, the only time under 21 minutes. Rebecca Dickey, fourth in 21:38 flat, led a pack that included Claire Griffin (21:45.0), Lily Pellegrino (22:24.4) and Thalie Petrie (22:29.9).

Michael Gomes, in a time of 17:16.3, beat Mexico’s Everett Bryant (17:30.5) by more than 14 seconds for the boys individual title, while Bishop Ludden had Porter Sheen finish 13th, two spots ahead of WG’s Sean Moser.

Sheen won an individual race in 20:05 against Weedsport the next time he ran, while the Ludden girls team lost 20-30, seeing Kemery Sandborn (25:44) and Mia DeCarlo (26:48) lead the charge.

Back home at Camillus Middle School last Wednesday afternoon, WG offered a challenge to Fayetteville-Manlius – and got turned back on both sides by the powerful Hornets.

A close boys race saw the Wildcats’ place six of the top 10, yet still lose 26-31 because F-M went 1-2, led by Nolan McGinn’s quick 16:34.3 and Will Ditre’s second-place 17:25.9.

Gomes was third, in 17:52.7, and no one else broke the 19-minute mark. Mason Doran finished fifth in 19:28.8, with Dillon Holzwarth sixth in 19:32.2. Moser’s eighth-place 19:48.5 beat the 20:06.8 from William Madden and 20:18.2 from Archer Macholl.

In the girls race, F-M prevailed 15-47 and swept the top six individual spots until Fietze got seventh place in 20:54.8. Dickey was eighth, in 21:34.9, followed by Zoe Maupin (22:08.1) in ninth place.

Several meets took place on the weekend, including the East Syracuse Minoa Invitational, which saw Westhill’s Drew O’Reilly win a thrilling individual race.

In a time of 16:44.5, O’Reilly edged Rush-Henrietta’s Bayley Herman (16:44.8) by three-tenths of a second. Team-wise, the Warriors were second to the Royal Comets, despite O’Reilly’s win and Edward Popp finishing fifth in 17:19 flat.

The Westhill girls had a fifth-place finish in ESM’s field of 13, with Stella Napolitano leading the charge as she got ninth place in 21:24.7 and Eileen Mullen was 20th (22:50.2), three spots ahead of Isabel Leonardo’s 22;54.3.

There was also the Vernon-Verona-Sherrill Invitational, where in last Friday’s ‘A’ race Skaneateles finished fifth in the girls portion and 11th out of 14 boys teams.

For the girls Lakers, Lucy Fleckenstein took 12th place in 20:47.4, with Tobi DiRubbo (21:58.4) also recording a top-10 finish and Caroline McSwain (23:56.2) just outside the top 30. Ben Williams led the Skaneateles boys side, making his way to 27th place in 19:22.4.

Many more local teams came to VVS on Saturday, including West Genesee, who edged Cicero-North Syracuse, 96 points to 100, for second place in the girls Varsity 2 race, trailing only Guilderland’s 40 points.

Fietze finished seventh, in 20:27.8, with Dickey making her way to 16th place in 21:14.2. Conklin (21:59.8), Griffin (22:04.6), Pellegrino (22:06.1) and Maupin (22:16.6) were all in the top 30 of the team standings.

As for WG’s boys team, it finished fifth out of 13 sides, but Gomes had the Wildcats’ best individual finish of the day, making his way to sixth place in 17:28.1. Of his teammates, only Holzwarth (19:38.6) finished in the individual top 50.

Jordan-Elbridge and Marcellus both raced later in the day, with the boys Eagles led by Peyton Bates’ time of 19:04.3, good for 45th place in Varsity Race 3 as the Mustangs’ Liam Eldridge was 3nd in Varsity Race 4 in 18:40.4.