CENTRAL NEW YORK – A single point, a single placement and just a few seconds ultimately made the difference for the Cazenovia boys cross country team in its quest for an Onondaga High School League Liberty National division regular-season championship.
The Lakers’ narrow 27-28 win over Marcellus Wednesday at the Sean Googin Sports Complex came down to the fact that the Lakers’ fifth runner, Owen Woodworth, had to finish ahead of the Mustangs’ fourth runner, Paxton Raone.
They almost came to the line together – but Woodworth, in 18 minutes 58 seconds, finished just ahead of the 19:00 flat of Raone and 19:20 of teammate Robert Hakes to clinch the head-to-head win and the league title, too.
Both sides came into the meet 4-0, and as expected Cazenovia standout Jake Woolbert rolled to the individual title, covering the 3.1-mile Fenner course in 17:09 to beat the 17:29 from Marcellus’ Liam Eldridge.
But when the Mustangs had Griffin Palen take third place in exactly 18 minutes and Evan Fullagar finish fourth in 18:08, the Lakers had no choice but to grab the next four individual spots – which it did.
Kooper Wilmot tailed Fullagar and finished fifth in 18:12. Nolan Campagna was right behind Wilmot and posted 18:19, with Will Galton’s 18:42 good for seventh place setting up the late drama between Woodworth and Roane.
At that same meet Cazenovia’s girls defeated Marcellus 17-48 to complete its own undefeated run through the OHSL Liberty National division.
It was Senior Day for Avery Cashatt, Izzy Stromer-Galley and Ilsa Denton, and they were honored at the meet while Cassatt also had a strong individual showing, finishing third in 22:47.
Cazenovia swept the top three positions, Lily Kogut pulling away to win in 19:33 and Maeve McGreevy second in 21:53. Stromer-Galley got fifth place in 23:53, a time identical to Haylee Stearns, with Sorsha Lewis going 24:28 and Rylee Stearns 25:01 to finish within the top 10.
Meanwhile, Chittenango would win both parts of its regular-season finale against Christian Brothers Academy, getting 15-50 sweeps in both portions of the meet.
The unbeaten girls Bears were led again by Natalie DiGennaro, whose 21:18 was nearly a full minute quicker than Mariah Stewart’s 22:16. Ani McCarthy was third in 22:59, edging the 23-minute effort from Ava McLean as Kyra Congden went 24:13 for fifth place.
On the boys side, Chittenango got its own top-five sweep led by Bryce Edwards, who won in 17:35, beating out the 17:48 posted by Zach Driscoll.
Logan Rogers, in 18:06, edged out Gavin Roach (18:07) for third place, with Ethan Lavier fifth in 18:19 ahead of CBA’s best time of 18:52 from Viraan Shah as Dan Mahle finished in exactly 19 minutes ahead of Sean Navin (19:08).
