With many important meets still ahead, the Cicero-North Syracuse and Liverpool cross country teams both took on Salt City Athletic Conference Metro division rivals last Wednesday afternoon.
At Oneida Shores, C-NS hosted West Genesee and Henninger and, on the girls side, emerged victorious by a 22-34 margin over the Wildcats while dominating the Black Knights 15-50.
Going 1-2 on an individual basis, eighth-grader Kennedy Jones prevailed in 19 minutes, 57.7 seconds, beating out the 20:15.8 from ninth-grader Sophia Graham in the runner-up spot.
Cameron Sisk finished fourth, in 20:25.8, with Katy Harbold getting to sixth place in 20:37.2. Allison Moran, in 22:28.9, beat out Tabby Coombs (22:55.0) for ninth place.
On the boys side, the Northstars beat West Genesee 21-40 along with its 15-50 sweep of Henninger, led by Tyler Graham, who was second among individuals in 17:54.7 behind the Wildcats’ Michael Gomes (17:09.2).
Two freshmen, Rhett Andrews (18:04.9) and Nolan Zinsmeyer (18:09.2), were third and fourth, respectively, with Dominic Petrera fifth in 18:24.8. Evan Champ (18:35.6), Joe Massett (18:44.2) and Braden Santaguida (19:01.3) also had top-10 efforts.
The rivalry between Liverpool and Baldwinsville returned at Durgee Junior High School, where each of the Warriors’ sides were defeated by the Bees.
In the girls race, won 20-35 by B’ville, Taylor Page’s time of 21:26.2 put her in fourth place behind a Bees trio led by Kamryn Barton, who won in 19:45.3, more than a full minute ahead of the field.
Kaitlyn Hotaling made her way to fifth place, in 21:26.4, while Kailyn Barth was seventh in 21:41.8. Charlotte Warner earned ninth place in 22:08.9 and Paige Baker (22:33.7) edged Rose Piorkowski (22:33.8) for 10th place.
Liverpool’s boys lost 19-40 to B’ville, who again swept the top three, Adam Kozman going 17:13.6 as he ran together with Ryan Wilson (17:13.7) and Noah Covert (17:13.9) and they all were clear of the 17:36.8 from the Warriors’ Brady Ruediger.
Roman Murray did get fifth place in 17:38.4, but B’ville runners filled out nine of the next 10 spots, the lone exception being Josh Vang earning eighth place in 18:06.3.
Three days later, Liverpool and C-NS would both compete in the McQuaid Invitational in Rochester, the girls Warriors taking part in the Varsity AAA division, where Page would finish third, her 18:19.3 on the three-mile course not far from Rush-Henrietta’s Haylie Smith (18:10.7) in second, though Frontier’s Lillian Bogdan (16:58.4) pulled away to win.
Hotaling joined Page in the top 10, making her way to ninth place in 18:43.3. Barth finished 32nd in 19:52.6, just ahead of Warner (19:55.7) in 34th place as Ziegler (20:35.6) was just ahead of Piorkowski (20:45.0).
Over in the boys AAA race at McQuaid, C-NS had Tyler Graham get to 39th place in 16:52.6, while Andrews was 47th in 17:02.2) and Zinsmeyer (17:17.5) was close behind.
C-NS’s girls were part of the featured Bob Bradley Premier race, seeing Jones make her way to 22nd place in 18:37.6. Sophia Graham went 19:08.7 for 35th place as Sisk went 19:38.7 and Harbold went 19:44.2.
In the Bradley Premier boys race, Liverpool got its best finish from Ruediger, who was 48th in 15:48.6. Vang finished in 16:07 flat as Fayetteville-Manlius senior Nolan McGinn pulled away to win in 14:36.4.
