ONONDAGA COUNTY – Contrasting the warm temperatures present in all of their early-season races, area high school cross country teams faced much more rain and mud when they returned to league competition on Wednesday afternoon.
Three of them faced one another, with Westhill, Skaneateles and Marcellus all in the same meet along with Christian Brothers Academy, the Warriors managing on the boys side to defeat the Mustangs 26-29 and the Lakers 20-36.
Westhill was led by Edward Popp posting a time of 15 minutes 56.7 seconds that was just ahead of the 16:09.2 from Skaneateles’ Tritan Boucher ane the best Marcellus time of 16:38.3 from Liam Eldridge.
Chris Gilkes, fourth in 16:57.5, led a trio of Warriors which included Anthony Cardoso (17:17.8) and Alex Tyscka (17:26.5), with John-Paul Headd (18:04) and Joseph Ritz (19:12.1) behind them.
To get Marcellus close to Westhill and beating Skaneateles 24-33, Evan Fullagar had to post 16:54 flat and Robert Hakes finished in 17:00.6, with Craig Weidner (18:07.6) just ahead of fellow Mustangs Paxton Roane (18:11.2) and Owen Babcock (18:13.6).
Ben Williams, in 17:42.7, had the quickest Skaneateles time behind Boucher, with Sam Coleman going 18:07.1 and Gabe Holmes, in 19:09.3, just ahead of the 19:15.4 from Charles Kissel.
Among the girls teams, Westhill got past Skaneateles 24-33 while also topping Marcellus and CBA 15-50 each, though it was the Lakers’ Lucy Fleckenstein easily claiming the individual race in 19:10.7.
Stella Napolitano paced the Warriors, going 20:03 flat, with Sabine Napolitano right behind in 20:03.5 as Eileen Mullen posted 20:09.1. Adelina Montalto finished in 21:20.7 as Reagan Wright (21:54.7) rounded out Westhill’s scoring column.
Following Fleckenstein on the Lakers’ side that beat Marcellus 18-37 and CBA 15-50 was Tobi DiRubbo finishing in 20:33.8. Rachelle Berbue, in 21:24.2, was just ahead of Monica Pohl’s 21:44.9 and Annabel Wells’ 22:42 flat.
West Genesee hosted Henninger and Cicero-North Syracuse, winning both sets of races against the Black Knights but falling to the Northstars including a close 26-29 girls race.
Rebecca Dickey won on the girls side for WG, her time of 20:14.5 beating out the 20:20 flat from C-NS’s Sophia Graham. Two more Northstars finished in front of Lily Pellegrino’s fifth-place 21:34.9 as she edged Thalie Petrie (21:35.4) in sixth place. Harper Flynn posted 23:16.9 for 10th place and Ashley Foss finished 11th in 23:53.3.
On the boys side, the Wildcats beat Henninger 21-40 and lost 19-36 to C-NS, with the Northstars grabbing four of the top five spots before WG’s David Petrus finished sixth in 18:19.4.
Dillan Holzwarth went 18:39 flat and earned seventh place, with Sean Moser eighth in 18:41.4. Archer Macholl claimed ninth place in 18:47.1 and William Madden (19:10.9) gained 12th place.
Jordan-Elbridge won both sides of its meet against Solvay, with the boys Eagles battling to top the Bearcats 25-31.
Alex Kunz won in 17:49 for the boys Eagles over the 17:57 from the Bearcats’ Max Overend, with Connor Boylan (18:06) and Anthony King (18:12) giving J-E a cushion in front of Jordan Lorck’s fifth-place 18:15.
