VERONA – All of the area’s high school cross country teams made their way to Vernon-Verona-Sherrill last Saturday and battled for Section III championship honors in eight races throughout the morning and afternoon.
An immediate impression was made in the Class C girls race by Skaneateles sophomore Lucy Fleckenstein, who with her time of 20 minutes, 22.6 seconds finished fourth and qualified for a return trip to VVS for this weekend’s state championship meet.
Also going to the state meet, on the boys side, is Westhill’s Drew O’Reilly, who in the boys Class C race tore to a time of 16:41 flat, a close second to the 16:38.4 from Mexico’s Ethan Becker.
And it was those Tigers who, with 65 points, kept the Warriors (100 points) from claiming the sectional team title, with Edward Popp going 17:27.5 to finish seventh, just behind Cazenovia’s Jake Woolbert (17:22.9) for the last individual spot on the sectional All-Star team for the state meet.
Alex Dacko made his way to 24th place in 18:33.9, with Chris Gilkes 27th in 18:36.8 as Bryce Burdick finished 40th among team runners with a clocking of 19:20.1.
Skaneateles was fourth in Class B-2 and tied with Jordan-Elbridge for 11th overall, with Marcellus in eighth place (sixth in B-2) as Solvay got to 13th place.
Liam Eldridge, finishing 16th in a time of 18:10.3, led the Mustangs, while the Eagles’ Peyton Bates ran well, too, getting 20th place in 18:26.9. Ben Williams paced the Lakers as he ran to 26th in 18:34.9, with the Bearcats seeing Max Overend go 19:10.9 for 35th place.
Meanwhile, the Skaneateles girls finished sixth in Class C out of 12 sides, with Tobi DiRubbo taking 14th place in 21:41.6 as Caroline McSwain was 22nd among team runners (24th overall) in 22:27.9. Annabel Wells, in 24:48.6, was one spot ahead of Monica Pohl (24:55.2) among the rest of the Lakers.
Marcellus was 10th in girls Class C, with just one top-50 team runner as Lorelei Reffler finished in 24:38.2. Jordan-Elbridge had its top performer, Abygale Bates, make her way to 20th place in 22:13.2 as, in the Class D girls race, Bishop Ludden’s Mia DeCarlo was 40th in 24:03.6 in the girls race, with Porter Sheen 42nd in the boys race in 19:31 flat.
All this was before West Genesee took to the VVS course for the Class A races, finishing third among girls teams with 96 points, behind only Fayetteville-Manlius and Liverpool.
No individual Wildcats made the state meet, but WG still ran well, Chloe Fietze getting to eighth place in 19:55 flat and earning the first alternate spot for the state meet.
Zoe Maupin, in a time of 20:50 flat, got to 16th place, with Rebecca Dickey 21st in 20:58 flat. Shannon McMahon, going 21:26.8, beat out Claire Griffin (21:30.4) for 25th place as Thalie Petrie was 31st (21:45.4) and Lily Pellegrino 32nd in 22:01 flat.
On the boys side, WG finished sixth out of 13 Class A sides, mostly due to Michael Gomes getting to 13th place in 17:18.4. Archer Macholl finished 39th among team runners in 18:48.7, three spots ahead of Mason Doran (18:53.2), as Sean Moser (19:03.3) and Dillan Holzwarth (19:14.8) rounded out the team slate.
