Rivals Marcellus and Skaneateles joined up with Solvay for a three-team OHSL Liberty division cross country meet last Tuesday afternoon, with the Mustangs and Lakers taking something from it.
The boys Mustangs beat the Lakers 23-37 and also beat the Bearcats, with Skaneateles edging Solvay 27-28 as, individually, Liam Eldridge went 17 minutes, 43 seconds to pace Marcellus, who topped Solvay 19-40.
Tritan Boucher (18:07) and Ben Williams (18:08) led Skaneateles and were second and third, respectively, but the Mustangs swept the next five spots behind the 18:45 from Solvay’s Max Overend.
Ay-Zoh Shaw (18:58) was just ahead of Robbie Hakes (19:03), with Ethan Checksfield (19:26) ahead of Evan Fullagar (19:34) and Alex LoStracco (19:41) as the Bearcats got a 19:42 from Luke Dickinson.
Over in the girls race, Skaneateles got the sweep over Marcellus and Solvay, claiming the top three individual spots. Lucy Fleckenstein won in 19:48, with Tobi DiRubbo second in 20:10 and Caroline McSwain third in 21:33.
Lorelei Reffler led Marcellus with her fourth-place clocking of 23:06, with the Lakers’ Annabel Wells fifth in 23:29 and Monica Pohl posting 25:08, just behind the 25:05 from the Mustangs’ Lucy Eldridge.
A day later, Westhill faced Chittenango, and split that meet, with the boys Warriors prevailing 21-34 and the girls taking a loss to the Bears.
Again Drew O’Reilly led the Westhill boys, his time of 17:04 more than a minute ahead of teammate Edward Popp’s 18:06 as Alex Dacko, in 19:11, beat out Chittenango’s Dan Mahle (19:19) to complete a top-three Warriors sweep. Bryce Burdick got seventh place in 19:41 and Chris Gilkes (20:03) was eighth.
Jordan-Elbridge faced unbeaten Cazenovia and, in the boys Eagles’ 21-40 defeat, Peyton Bates’ time of 18:22 was third behind the Lakers’ duo of Jake Woolbert (17:24) and Eddie Comeau (18:14). Connor Boylan finished fourth in 18:57 as Anthony King, with 19:33, also reached the top 10.
Bishop Ludden raced against Pulaski, one of the top OHSL Patriot division sides. Porter Sheen led the Gaelic Knights with a fourth-place time of 19:28 as the Blue Devils’ Ben Schouten won in 17:46.
West Genesee, whose league schedule was already competed, ran last Friday in the Chittenango Bears Twilight Invitational and finished second in the girls division with 70 points, trailing only the 22 from Fayetteville-Manlius.
Chloe Fietze led the Wildcats, taking ninth place in 19:55.6. Zoe Maupin, in 20:35 flat, beat out Rebecca Dickey (21:01.9) for 13th place. Claire Griffin (21:13.4) and Lily Pellegrino (21:20.2) were inside the top 20, with Andrea Conklin (21:43.1), Thalie Petrie (21:44.2) and Shannon McMahon (21:45.8) close behind.
Beating all of them on an individual basis, Skaneateles had Fleckenstein take sixth place in 19:45.8. DiRubbo was 15th in 21:10.8, with McSwain making her way to 26th place in 21:49.5.
Over in the boys race at Chittenango, WG was third behind Cicero-North Syracuse and Mexico, the Wildcats seeing Michael Gomes go 17:03.1 for third place, though it was well back of the winning 15:46.7 from F-M star Nolan McGinn.
The rest of the Wildcats’ scorers were close together. Dillon Holzwarth was 29th among team runners in 18:43.7, just ahead of Archer Macholl (18:48.1), Sean Moser (18:54.6) and Mason Doran (18:58.2).
All of them were behind two Skaneateles runners as Williams finished 16th in 18:01.9 and Boucher (18:13.0) got 20th place, while Solvay got a 19:19.8 from Overend and a 19:28.7 from Luke Dickinson.
In Saturday’s races, Marcellus finished second to host Rome Free Academy at the Coughlin Invitational, with Eldridge third among individuals in 18:07.33 as Hakes posted 19:11.24 to finish just outside the top 10. The girls Mustangs finished eighth, led by Reiffler, who was 15th in 23:55.24.
Westhill was at the Manhattan Invitational, where O’Reilly finished third in the boys “C” division race, covering the 2.5-mile Van Cortlandt Park course in 13:05.9, not far from the winning 12:55.5 from Brunswick School’s Nathan Lee.
