LIVERPOOL – At least for this season each of the Cicero-North Syracuse cross country teams has gained the upper hand on their rivals from Liverpool, though not by much.
When the boys Northstars defeated the Warriors 22-34 and added a simultaneous 25-34 victory over Fayetteville-Manlius Wednesday at Long Branch Park, it clinched the Salt City Athletic Conference Metro division regular-season championship with a 6-0 record to dethrone Baldwinsville, who went 5-1 but lost to C-NS head-to-head back in September.
Beating Liverpool required, for C-NS, a sweep of four spots after the Warriors’ Josh Vang finished in 17 minutes 7.4 seconds, third overall as F-M’s Will Ditre (16:31.6) and Kevin Heller (16:47.5) went 1-2.
Rhett Andrews led the Northstars’ group, finishing in 17:13.2. Fellow sophomore Nolan Zinsmeyer earned 17:21.6 and Tyler Graham went 17:25.7 as Jack Putman, in 17:33.3, all but clinched C-NS’s sweep and Dom Petrera posted 17:49.3.
Brian Juston’s 17:44.6 only meant sixth place in the Liverpool-C-NS battle. Mason Dineen, in 17:46.6, was two seconds behind Juston, Jackson Allen going 17:50.5 and Michael Hoey (18:20.7) rounding out the scoring column.
Then the girls race between the two sides was a one-point decision, 27-28 in the Northstars’ favor, though both finished behind Fayetteville-Manlius, who edged the Warriors 25-30 and topped C-NS 24-31 to snare regular-season league honors again.
The two fastest girls times in the Liverpool-C-NS battle were earned by the Warriors as Taylor Page went 18:38 flat and Kaitlyn Hotlaling 19:06.9, Page second only to F-M’s Izzie Sullivan winning in 18:02.5.
Running together for C-NS, Cameron Sisk (19:44.1) beat out Sophia Graham (19:44.2) at the line and Kennedy Jones followed in 19:55.3 as Mya Patti ran 20:16.7 and Katy Harbold (20:18.7) for the seventh and eighth spots, respectively.
That proved enough for the Northstars to win by that single point, though Liverpool had freshman Katie Martin go 20:04.6 for sixth place, Paige Baker take ninth in 20:26 flat and Rose Piorkowski, in 20:33.7, finish 10th, with Maggie Sherlock (20:47.1) and Addison Ziegler (21:16.1) in the next two spots.
