CENTRAL NEW YORK – In what was sure to be the hottest temperatures they had faced all season, the Cazenovia boys cross country team had little troulbe in last Wednesday’s three-team meet against Hannibal and Solvay.
The Lakers beat the Warriors 16-47 and topped the Bearcats 19-43, with Jake Woolbert leading the way again as his time of 17 minutes, 35 seconds was more than a minute ahead of Solvay’s best runner, Max Overend (18:38).
Eddie Comeau finished in 19:08, just ahead of Kooper Wilmot’s 19:28 for the third and fourth individual spots. Garret Lounsbury made his way to the finish line in 19:33 as Henri Mongeau finished in 20:04 and Andy Franz posted 20:08.
As for Chittenango, it took on Homer that same warm Wednesday afternoon, and the boys Bears were triumphant, defeating the Trojans 23-38.
In a time of 19:38, Dan Mahle was second to the 19:22 from Homer’s Damian Brown, but Ethan Lavier followed and earned a third-place clocking of 20:09.
Then the rest of the Chittenango runners took over, Gavin Roach earning fifth place in 20:51 ahead of a pack that included Logan Rogers (20:56), Manu Tipa (21:03), Jacob Neupert (21:40), Bryce Edwards (21:47) and Joseph Lin (22:18).
Chittenango’s girls handled Homer 20-41 with a pack of five Bears runners that followed the Trojans’ Ingrid Aagaard and her winning time of 21:39.
In exactly 23 minutes, Mariah Stewart finished second, with Natalie DiGennaro third in 23:44. Laura Powers got a fourth-place time of 23:17 ahead of Sophia DiGennaro (23:44) and Ani McCarthy (23:54), who rounded out the scoring column. Ava McLean (24:17) and Emily Judd (24:32) also finished in the top 10.
Moving from here to Saturday’s rain-soaked Tully Invitational, the Chittenango girls were victorious both in the large-school division and overall, earning 50 points to runner-up Liverpool’s total of 57.
To lead the Bears, Natalie DiGenarro got sixth place overall, second among large-school runners, in a time of 21:58.9, just ahead of Stewart’s seventh-place 22:00.1.
McLean was 14th in 22:37.4 and McCarthy 15th in 22:48 flat as Sophia DiGennaro followed both of them, posting 22:52.1, and Judd (22:54.5) also finished in the top 20. Chittenango is hosting its annual Twilight Invitational this Friday at 4 p.m.
