CENTRAL NEW YORK – Already this fall, the Liverpool boys cross country team owns valuable victories over two primary league rivals.
The Warriors followed up its Sept. 13 win over Cicero-North Syracuse at Long Branch Park by going to Fayetteville-Manlius Wednesday and handling the Hornets 24-37 while also defeating Henninger 15-50.
It came down to Liverpool’s superior depth, which more than made up for F-M having the top individual runner in Nolan McGinn, who blazed to victory in 16 minutes, 32.8 seconds.
Brady Ruediger, in 16:45.6, edged out the Hornets’ Will Ditre (16:46.9) for second place, and from the time Roman Murray crossed in fourth place in 17:08.1, it was all Warriors.
Joshua Vang was fifth, in 17:17.7, with Nathan Aurello clocking 17:54.7 for sixth place. Davis Farrell was seventh in 18:21.1 as Mason Dinneen was eighth in 18:27 flat ahead of Andrew Corrigan (18:29.9) and Michael Hoey (18:57.8).
Liverpool’s girls got a split as it also beat Henninger, bu could not keep up with F-M in a 17-45 defeat, with Taylor Page’s time of 19:38.7 fourth behind a Hornets trio led by Izzie Sullivan, who won in 18:58.3 over Delilah Pandori-Howell (19:03.8) and Camille Ryan (19:29.6).
Other than Taylor, only two other Warrior runners finished in the top 10, with Kaitlyn Hotaling getting eighth place in 20:31.1 and Charlotte Warner finishing in 21:33.4.
As this went on, C-NS faced Auburn, and it proved to be a dramatic girls race as the Northstars rallied to pull out a 28-29 victory over the Maroons.
Auburn had gone 1-2 with Kyleen Brady winning in 19:58 flat and Abby Ringwood second (20:41.7) before Kennedy Jones put C-NS on the board, finishing third in 20:50.7.
Sophia Graham took fourth in 21:21.8 and Cameron Sisk was fifth in 21:38.8. But with Auburn taking two of the next three spots, the Northstars had to occupy the rest of the top 10 – and did so.
Katy Harbold finished seventh, in 22:07.4, helped by Allison Moran getting to ninth place in 23:50.5 as Elianna Balagh, who was 10th in 24:17.7, clinched C-NS’s win.
Unable to repeat this on the boys side, the Northstars lost, 25-40, to Auburn, the defending sectional Class A champions, who were paced by Ryan Maher and Owen Gasper both finishing in 17:47.7.
Rhett Andrews had the Northstars’ best time of 18:45.6. Tyler Graham followed in 18:51.3 as Nolan Zinsmeyer finished in 19:21.4 ahead of Joe Massett (19:26.0) and Dominic Petrera (19:32.4).
Both Liverpool and C-NS found themselves at Saturday’s Baldwinsville Invitational, part of the Large School division, and the Northstars finished third among girls behind Auburn and Pittsford Sutherland.
Jones rose to fifth place in the individual race in 19:34 flat, with Harbold getting seventh place in 19:46.8. Sisk (20:01.9) and Sophia Graham (20:18.4) also had top-20 showings as, for Liverpool, Addison Ziegler did best, finishing 32nd in 21:26.6.
Over in the boys Large School race at B’ville, C-NS was sixth and Liverpool 10th among teams, the Northstars led by Tyler Graham finishing 32nd in 17:26.1, with Davis Farrell tops for the Warriors as he went 17:43.9 for 42nd place.
