BALDWINSVILLE – Back together again, the Cicero-North Syracuse and Liverpool cross country teams would each take away some strong finishes from Wednesday’s Salt City Athletic Conference championships at Baldwinsville.
On the familiar B’ville course at Durgee Junior High School, the girls Northstars worked its way to a second-place overall and Metro division finish, its overall total of 73 points trailing only the 29 from Fayetteville-Manlius. The Warriors finished third with 103 points.
Eighth-grader Kennedy Jones continued her outstanding breakthrough season for C-NS, going 18 minutes, 37.8 seconds to beat out Liverpool’s Taylor Page (18:39.8) for third place and not far from the second-place 18:29.5 from Auburn’s Mary Alice Pineau as F-M’s Izzie Sullivan won in 17:48.9.
To help the Northstars get to second place, Sophia Graham finished 14th in 19:30.6 and Cameron Sisk (19:32.2) was close behind in 15th place.
C-NS junior Gabby Putman, who had missed much of the season, returned to action and finished 19th in 19:50.6, just ahead of teamamte Katy Harbold (19:56.4) in 22nd place. Allison Moran (21:15.9) also finished in the top 40.
Helping Page for Liverpool, Kaitlyn Hotaling got 10th place in 19:12.3, fifth among runners outside of F-M. Rose Piorkowski finished 28th in 20:41 flat, edging teammate Kailyn Barth (20:41.2) for that spot as Charlotte Warner was 32nd in 20:47.6 and Paige Baker got 33rd place in 20:49.3.
The boys SCAC race was next, and it was Liverpool rising to third place overall and in the league. With 95 points overall, the Warriors trailed the 33 from Auburn and 57 from host B’ville.
Four of the five finishers behind F-M’s Nolan McGinn (15:26.0) were from Auburn before Liverpool’s Brady Ruediger made his way to seventh place in a clocking of 16:07.9.
Josh Vang also ran well, getting to 15th place in 16:43 flat. Nate Aurelio, with a time of 17:00.5, was just outside the top 20 and two spots ahead of Davis Farrell (17:20.2) in 23rd place as eighth-grader Brady Petrella stepped up to finish 29th in 17:33.1. J.T. Goss posted 17:38.5, with Andrew Corrigan (17:55.6) and Mason Dineen (17:56.2) also in the top 40.
On C-NS’s side, sophomore Tyler Graham had the quickest time, his 16:51.9 good for 18th place as Rhett Andrews, in 16:59.1, finished 20th.
Nolan Zinsmeyer made his way to 25th place in 17:23.7, while Evan Champ took 36th place in 17:50.2. Dominic Petrera’s time of 18:09.6 put him inside the top 50.
Now C-NS and Liverpool will go to work for more than two weeks before the Nov. 4 Section III championships at Vernon-Verona-Sherrill, which also hosts the state championship meet a week later.
