CENTRAL NEW YORK – Even as temperatures began to cool and conditions changed, each of the Cazenovia cross country teams remained well clear of their OHSL Liberty National division competition.
The Lakers easily swept past Solvay last Wednesday afternoon at the Sean Goggin Sports Complex, with the girls taking a 15-50 victory and the boys humbling the Bearcats 15-46.
Just four days removed from a small-school team title at the Tully Invitational, the Cazenovia girls had Lily Kogut go to the front and prevail in 22 minutes 15.9 seconds.
Maeve McGreevy grabbed the runner-up spot in 23:40.9, with Avery Cashatt third in 24:37.3. Gwen Livingston (25:51.7), Haylee Stearns (25:52.9) and Izzy Stromer-Galley (25:53.2) all followed.
Over in the boys race Cazenovia’s Jake Woolbert followed up his Tully Invitational victory on Oct. 5 with an 18:14 here that beat the field by more than a minute.
Will Galton and Nolan Campagna both finished in 19:25 and Kooper Wilmot (19:26) was a second behind. Evan Molloy, in 19:39, completed a top-five Lakers sweep as Tristan Field-Bradley (20:25) and Henri Mongeau (20:30) also ran well.
As this went on Chittenango had its own league meet against Cortland, dominating both sides against the Purple Tigers as the boys won 15-48 and the girls 15-50.
In a time of 22:35.8 Natalie DiGennaro led a top-five sweep by the girls Bears. Mariah Stewart got second in 25:08.3 to beat out Ani McCarthy and Emily Judd going 25:08.6 and Ava McLean finishing in 25:09.1.
In the boys race it was Bryce Edwards, in 18:35, leading a top-five sweep. Zach Driscoll, in 19:34, edged out Ethan Lavier (19:38) for second place, with Gavin Roach (19:46) doing the same to Dan Mahle (19:47) for fourth. Logan Rogers was seventh in 20:01 as Sean Navin (20:21) and Jacob Neupert (20:54) also had top-10 efforts.
Two days later, Chittenango hosted its annual Twilight Invitational, which was won on the boys side by Cicero-North Syracuse and the girls side by Fayetteville-Manlius, with Hornets runners Will Ditre (16:47.6) and Izzie Sullivan (18:54.9) sweeping the individual honors.
Chittenango’s girls finished fourth in the seven-team field, led by DiGennaro, who finished 14th among team runners (17th overall) in 21:57.5. McCarthy, in 23:13.1, was just ahead of Stewart (23:18.2), McLean (23:30.9) and Judd (23:48.2).
Of the 10 boys teams the Bears took fifth place, with Edwards going 18:40.2 to finish 13th overall. Mahle’s time of 19:24.1 beat out Lavier (19:36.6), Driscoll (19:50.3) and Roach (19:51.1).
Cazenovia’s boys went to Sunday’s Manhattan Invitational at Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx without Woolbert, Galton and Campagna in the lineup and finished 14th out of 21 teams in the Varsity ‘B’ race, led by Wilmot, who finished 44th in the team standings going 15:25.2 on the 2.5-mile course.
Molloy finished in 15:57.8, with Mongeau posting 16:10.3. Field-Bradley went 16:32.9 to beat out the 16:38.2 from Gavin Wagner as Robbie Dorus went 17:54.5 and Owen Woodworth finished in 19:37.5/
