CENTRAL NEW YORK – Already the transition from the regular season in cross country to the post-season has started, as West Genesee took part Wednesday in the Salt City Athletic Conference championships at East Syracuse Minoa’s Pine Grove Middle School course.
Finishing sixth overall out of 12 boys teams and seventh in the girls race, the Wildcats were led in the boys race by Alex Bojarski, the sophomore going 18 minutes 18.4 seconds to finish 18th among SCAC Metro division runners and 30th overall.
Sean Moser got 22nd place in the Metro division in 18:25.1, just ahead of Archer Macholl (18:32.8), with David Petrus (18:40.3) and Mason Doran (18:51.7) also breaking the 19-minute mark ahead of Will Madden’s 19:01.8.
As for the WG girls, Rebecca Dickey finished 23rd in the Metro division and 32nd overall in 21:15.5 running together with Juliana Fasulo, less than a second behind in 21:16.3. Thalie Petrie posted 21:27.3 as Lily Pellegrino went 21:42 flat and Claire Griffin, in 21:54.8, just beat out Harper Flynn’s 21:58.9.
Meanwhile, a big regular-season showdown for the OHSL Liberty National division had 4-0 Marcellus battle 4-0 Cazenovia and lose by a single point, 27-28.
To put itself in winning position the Mustangs had to answer Jake Woolbert’s win in 17:09 and did so, Liam Eldridge taking second in 17:29 as Griffin Palen was third in exactly 18 minutes and Evan Fullagar (18:08) was fourth.
However, before Paxton Roane (19:00) and Robert Hakes (19:02) finished, four Lakers took the fifth through eighth spots for the clinching points, led by Kooper Wilmot’s 18:12 ahead of Nolan Campagna (18:19) and Will Galton (18:42) as Owen Woodworth’s 18:58 was just two seconds ahead of Roane.
Going head-to-head, Skaneateles and Jordan-Elbridge were close on the boys side, but the Lakers beat the Eagles 24-31 as Tritan Boucher posted 17:26, a full minute ahead of teammate Ben Williams’ 18:27.
J-E’s Connor Boylan (18:42) edged Anthony King (18:43) for third and Alex Kunz was fifth in 19:04, only to see Skaneateles take the team event when Gabriel Holmes got sixth place in 19:56, with Oliver Jirousek’s 20:10 edging Sam Coleman’s 20:11.
Lucy Fleckenstein again led the Skaneateles girls as it beat J-E 18-37. In 20:36, Fleckenstein pulled away from Tobi DiRubbo’s 21:31 as the Eagles’ Abby Bates was third in 22:29. Rachelle Berube, in 22:53, led a Lakers trio where Monica Pohl posted 23:13 and Annabel Wells finished in 24:01.
Westhill rolled past Cortland that same day, a 15-50 boys victory led by an 18:36 from Edward Popp. Anthony Cardoso finished in 18:59, with Chris Gilkes going 19:11 as Alex Tyscka’s 20-minute effort was fourth and William Thompson fifth in 20:07.
A nearly identical girls meet went 15-49 for the Warriors over the Purple Tigers, Sabine Napolitano winning in 21:39 as Stella Napolitano was second in 22:10. Adeline Alberts, in 23:58, was just ahead of Reagan Wright and Eileen Mullen in 24:02.
Solvay won, too, on the boys side, handling Phoenix 16-45. Max Overend claimed the individual race in 17:48, with Jordan Lorick second in 18:01 as Luke Dickinson (18:23) and Jack Burke (19:09) completed a top-four Bearcats sweep.
