CENTRAL NEW YORK – Before fall weather and fall temperatures truly arrived, area cross country teams dealt with temperatures close to 90 degrees in various league meets last Wednesday afternoon.
Two of them, Marcellus and Jordan-Elbridge, faced off with one another, and it was the Mustangs prevailing in the boys race 23-36 even though the Eagles’ Peyton Bates dominated the individual race.
In 18 minutes, eight seconds, Bates was nearly a full minute ahead of the 19:04 from Marcellus’ Liam Eldridge, with Robbie Hakes giving the Mustangs a third-place time of 19:54.
Then, after J-E’s Anthony King finished fourth in 19:55, Ethan Checksfield (20:05), Alex LoStracco (20:20) and Evan Fullagar (20:30) and Ay-Zoh Shaw (20:47) all beat the Eagles’ tandem of Connor Boylan (21:21) and Gabriel Jones (22:34).
In the girls race, Marcellus prevailed, with the Mustangs led by Lucy Eldridge and her time of 27:13 as the Eagles saw Abigayle Bates post 23:33 to lead her side.
West Genesee had a marquee race as it took on Auburn and Liverpool at Auburn Middle School, with both sets of Wildcats finding it difficult to keep up with the Maroons and Warriors.
Yet it was the WG girls able to beat Liverpool and salvage a split, the two sides tying 28-28, but the Wildcats claiming it when its sixth runner, Thalie Petrie, finished in 23:13.3 ahead of Chloe Ryan’s 24:20.2 for the Warriors.
In front of them, Chloe Fietze (21:34.0), Zoe Maupin (21:58.7) and Rebecca Dickey (22:10.6) all were close behind Liverpool’s top two of Taylor Page (20:37.0) and Kaitlyn Hotaling (21:16.2) as Shannon McMahon posted 22:26.3 and Claire Grififn’s 22:58.8 was just ahead of Petrie’s decisive effort. Auburn swept both sides led by Kyleen Brady’s winning 19:36.7.
On the boys side, it was WG falling 17-46 to Liverpool and 15-48 to Auburn, only having Michael Gomes finish among the top 10 runners as he got to ninth place in 18:09.9. Dillon Holzwarth had a clocking of 19:38.7 for 19th place, just ahead of Mason Doran’s 19:50.4.
Westhill faced Cortland won big on both sides, the 15-48 victory including Alex Dacko getting a turn at the front, his 20:38 three seconds ahead of Drew O’Reilly’s 20:41. Edward Popp was third in 20:41, with Chris Gilkes (21:15) and Bryce Burdick (21:38) completing a top-five sweep.
The Westhill girls swept the top seven against the Purple Tigers led by Stella Napolitano’s winning 23:32. Izzy Leonardo was second in 25:04, ahead of Ellie Thornton (25:25) as Sophia Hoffman, in exactly 26 minutes, edged Eileen Mullen (26:05) for fourth place. Addie Montalto’s 26:39 beat out Claire Sansbury’s 26:44.
Solvay faced Cazenovia and Hannibal and gained a split, beating the Warriors 18-37 but falling to the Lakers 19-43 as Max Overend’s time of 18:38 only trailed the 17:35 from Cazenovia’s Jake Woolbert. Luke Dickinson finished in 19:32, with Jack Burke finishing in 20:10.
Several area teams went to Saturday’s rain-soaked Tully Invitational, where Marcellus was led on the boys side by Eldridge, who sped his way to 10th place in a time of 18:32.9, just ahead of J-E’s Peyton Bates, who was 11th in 18:41.2. Bishop Ludden runner Porter Sheen finished 20th in a clocking of 18:58.7.
Of the local runners on the girls side at Tully, Abigayle Bates led for J-E, earning 17th place in 22:53.5. Marcellus had Lorelei Leffler make her way to 28th place in 23:54.4 as Ludden’s Mia DeCarlo (24:11.1) was just ahead of teammate Kemery Sanborn in 24:21.8.
