by Kurt Wheeler
TULLY – The Cazenovia girls cross country team defeated three non-league opponents on the road last Wednesday to raise its overall record to 6-0 for the season.
At Tully, the Lakers wore down a talented Black Knights squad to prevail 23-34 and overwhelmed Onondaga 15-49 and Cincinnatus 15-51 to remain unbeaten.
Tully gave Cazenovia a battle on their home course with Anna Congelli, one of the top runners in the section, taking first in the entire field at 21 minutes, 33 seconds.
Then Tully’s number two, Alex Dickson was also tough, leading the Laker pack through the first two miles of the race. With less than a mile to go, Tully had matched the Lakers stride for stride, with the race tied 28-28 at that point.
But Olivia Ruddy led a Laker surge in the final 1,500 meters to transform the race, with the rest of the Cazenovia pack following her lead.
Ruddy closed to within a minute of Congelli, finishing second overall in 22:40 despite the unexpected mid-80’s temperatures. Zoey Gagne (22:43) and Maeve McGreevy (22:49) also stormed past Dickson (23:18) to capture third and fourth overall.
Lauren McLean battled Tully’s Lucy Wright throughout the contest, trailing for the first two miles but remaining within striking distance. Like her teammates, McLean surged with less than a mile to go to finish in 24:03, 22 seconds ahead of Wright, to take sixth place.
Olivia Wong and Mesi Stevens also played critical roles as they steadily worked past Tully’s final two scorers to take eighth and ninth places, respectively.
Wong’s 25:15 effort locked in Cazenovia’s winning score of 23 points while Stevens’ 26:08 finish displaced both of the Tully runners and all of the Onondaga scorers. In total, the Lakers were able to place six of the first nine runners across the line to dominate the four team field.
Ilsa Denton (28:20) and Emma O’Shea (29:22) were able to surpass all but one runner from Onondaga and all the Cincinnatus scorers to contribute to those wins while Iris Casey (31:31) and Savannah Randall (31:56) also contributed to Cazenovia’s strong showing.
With two weeks to go in the regular season, the Lakers are in first place in the Liberty-National division as they strive for their fifth consecutive league title. Cazenovia hosts Jordan-Elbridge next Wednesday afternoon.
