MARCELLUS – Perhaps it helped the Marcellus boys cross country team more than a little bit to have Wednesday’s Onondaga High School League Liberty division championships right at home.
For when all the scores were tallied at Marcellus Park the Mustangs were victorious in the National division by a single point, 48-49, over regular-season champion Cazenovia, whom it lost to by that exact same one-point margin head-to-head a week earlier on the Lakers’ home course.
Every position counted – starting at the top where senior Liam Eldridge covered the 2.85 miles of Marcellus Park in 15 minutes 1.9 seconds to win the individual race while Cazenovia’s top performer, Jake Woolbert, settled for third place.
From there, the Mustangs built its slim margin by having Jamieson Palen get fifth overall in 16:00.5 to beat the Lakers’ second runner, Kooper Wilmot, and then have fourth runner Evan Fullagar (17:21.1) edge Cazenovia’s Evan Molloy (17:21.3) by two-tenths of a second for the ultimate winning margin.
Robbie Hakes ran in between them, posting 17:14.7 for 27th place overall, and Paxton Raone, needing to finish exactly 18th in the National division, did so in 17:36.9.
Eldridge’s main individual challenger was Skaneateles sophomore Tritan Boucher, who made his way to second place in 15:17 flat. Ben Williams was 16th in 16:49.1, with Oliver Jirousek (17:21.8) the only other Lakers top-30 finisher.
Skaneateles took third in the National division, with Jordan-Elbridge fourth and Solvay fifth. The Eagles were led by Anthony King getting 15th place overall in 16:45.2 as Connor Boylan (17:06.4) was 23rd, with the Bearcats seeing Max Overend finish 28th in 17:18.6, one spot ahead of Luke Dickinson’s 17:21.2.
As for Westhill, it finished third in the Liberty American division behind Mexico and Chittenango and fifth overall led by Edward Popp, who tore his way to sixth place in 16:06.5. Alex Tryszka was 20th in 16:57 flat, two spots ahead of Anthony Cardoso, who posted 17:01.1.
All of this was a prelude to the OHSL Liberty girls race, where no one could top Skaneateles’ star junior, Lucy Fleckenstein. In 17:39.8, Fleckenstein won the individual league title nearly half a minute clear of the 18:04.2 from Homer’s Ingrid Aagaard.
As a team, Skaneateles was second in the National division behind Cazenovia, with Marcellus third and J-E fourth.
Individually, Abby Bates did best among these three sides, leading the Eagles and posting 19:46.2 for 12th place overall, while the Lakers’ Tobi DiRubbo was 14th in 20:05.4 to beat out Monica Pohl’s 20:20.6 in 17th place and Annabel Wells (21:30.1). The Mustangs had Magnolia Maum finish 22nd in 21:09.8 ahead of the 21:46.8 from Lucy Eldridge.
Westhill’s second-place finish to Chittenango in the American division was formed by freshman Sabine Napolitano going 19:30.3 for ninth place overall and Stella Napolitano closely behind posting 19:36.6. Addie Montalto was 16th in 20:17.5.
