CENTRAL NEW YORK – When the East Syracuse Minoa and Jamesville-DeWitt cross country teams gathered last Wednesday for their annual head-to-head race on the Red Rams’ home course, very little ended up separating these two rivals.
It actually was a three-team race, and both ESM and J-D easily turned back Fulton on the girls side, but up front it was the Spartans holding off the Rams in a 26-30 decision.
Rachael Burt won the individual race for ESM, her time of 22 minutes, 17 seconds well clear of the 22:58 from J-D’s Meghana Reddy and 23:30 from Rebecca Mendez Squier.
Jaelyn Jordan, in 23:43, beat out Neve Gordon (23:54) for fourth place. Then ESM got four of the next five spots as Ainsley McKenna (24:18), Danika Besig (25:06) and Emily Clonan (25:12) beat out J-D’s Abigail Adams (26:00) in ninth place.
Over in the boys race, it was J-D sweeping the top three spots to overcome ESM’s superior depth and win 28-30, again with both teams able to rout Fulton.
It was Hudson Groat winning it for the Rams with a time of 17:41, pulling away as Ryan Carter was second in 18:20. The key, though, was seeing Peter Drew, in 18:37, hold off ESM’s Joe Pedroso-Garcia (18:42) for third place.
This gave the Rams enough of a cushion against the Spartans’ surge. Brandon Cerlanek was fifth in 19:25, with Tom Gallery sixth in 19:41 as Elijah Evelyn (19:49) and Austin Gott (19:57) were just ahead of Bryce Oviedo’s 20:01.
Fayetteville-Manlius ran its last SCAC Metro division regular-season meet against Baldwinsville and Cicero-North Syracuse last Wednesday at the Northstars’ home course of Oneida Shores.
The girls Hornets, remaining undefeated, topped the Northsrars 23-35 and the Bees 15-45, led by Camille Ryan, whose time of 19:35.7 was well clear of the 19:53.7 from Northstars eighth-grader Kennedy Jones.
Starting with Jordan Giannetti in fourth place at 20:23.3, F-M swept the next five spots. Ava Beecher was fifth in 20:30.3, beating out Izzie Sullivan (20:34.5), Claire McDonald (20:40.2) and Maria Khalifeh, who posted 20:47.1.
In the boys race, F-M’s Nolan McGinn followed up his Sept. 30 Rochester McQuaid Invitational title by going 16:18.7 here, more than 40 seconds ahead of the field.
Still, the Hornets lost 25-36 to C-NS and 22-39 to B’ville, with Will Ditre’s fifth-place 17:35.7 the only other time in the top 15 for the Hornets as Ben Prendergast was 19th in 19:09.7.
Manlius Pebble Hill beat DeRuyer 23-36 in the boys race, with Jacob Temes second among individuals in 18:52 behind the Rockets’ Braeden Hulbert (18:21) as Jonathon Howard was third in 20:43 and Tim He fourth in 21:20. Max Breuer was sixth in 21:28.
Christian Brothers Academy ran against Mexico and won on the girls side, led by Ava LaValle, who was second in 25:15. Adele Sommer went 24:47 to finish ahead of Bella Wagner (26:01) and Abby Nash (27:44).
In the boys race, CBA lost 20-35, the Tigers sweeping the top four before James Cass finished in 20:07. Joe McMahon posted 20:28, with Kyle Gaffney seventh in 20:57 and Dan Abbe eighth in 21:22 as Jack Breitzka (22:24) also hit the top 10.
CBA’s runners then went to Saturday’s Tully Invitational, where in rainy conditions McMahon nearly won, his 17:12 flat only trailing the 17:09.9 from Mexico’s Ethan Becker as Gaffney finished fourth in 17:34.6. Cass was 17th in 18:53.9 as, in the girls race, Sommer made her way to 20th place in 23:01.4, with Nash 24th and Sofia Sheehan 26th.
J-D, meanwhile, finished third among boys teams and fifth among girls teams in the Whitesboro Invitational. Individually, Carter, in 18:57.3, beat out Groat (18:58.2) and Drew (18:59.3) for a top-10 boys finish, with Reddy pacing the girls Rams by finishing 21st in 23:11.6.
