MOUNT MARKHAM – When it counted the most, the Liverpool girls cross country team ran its best and delivered a landmark effort that resulted in earning the Section III Class A championship.
Years of finishing behind the likes of Fayetteville-Manlius had not discouraged the Warriors, who put everything together Saturday at Mount Markham High School and went to the top.
Each Liverpool runner was needed in a tight first-place battle with Auburn, which would come down to the fact that the Warriors’ fifth runner would fare five places better than the Maroons.
Up front, it was Taylor Page leading her side going 17 minutes 52.3 seconds, second only to the winning 17:38.2 from Auburn’s Kyleen Brady, while Kaitlyn Hotaling, in 18:16.7, was sixth behind the Maroons’ Mary Alice Pineau (18:12.5) in fifth.
The pattern persisted through the third and fourth spots. Katie Martin, in 18:48.4, was one team spot behind Abby Ringwood (18:41.7), and Paige Baker would go 19:14 flat tailing Nora Burroughs (19:12.3) most of the race.
Down five points, Liverpool had to make up all the spots – and did so thanks to Rose Piorkowski, who by finishing 17th among team runners (18th overall) in 19:19.4 was five spots ahead of the fifth Auburn runner, Vienna Ritter-Yelle, who went 19:34.9 – a difference of more than 15 seconds.
Further support for Liverpool came from Maggie Sherlock (20:14.0), Addison Ziegler (20:21.1) and Kailyn Barth (20:29.3), all of whom finished in the individual top 40.
While all this was going on Cicero-North Syracuse took fourth place in team A with 90 points led by Kennedy Jones, who was 11th among team runners and 12th overall in 18:55 flat.
Just behind her, Katy Harbold posted 18:55.5 for the Northstars and Mya Patti finished in 19:09.8, with Cameron Sisk finishing in 19:42.5 and Sophia Graham (20:20.9) rounding out the scoring column.
Moving to the boys side, Liverpool found itself looking up at its neighbors from C-NS and Baldwinsville most of the season.
This only made what the Warriors accomplished in the sectional Class A meet even sweeter as it rose to second place ahead of both the Bees and Northstars when all the scores were tallied.
Essentially it was a race for that runner-up spot since Auburn, with a top-three individual sweep led by Ryan Maher’s winning 15:34.3, rolled to victory with 33 points.
Yet it was Liverpool getting 85 points, not only clear of the C-NS total of 109, but also beating B’ville (96) and Fayetteville-Manlius (105) while seeing Josh Vang earn a spot in this Saturday’s state championship race at Queensbury.
The top five finishers outside of the winning team advance and Vang, going 16:08.3, was fourth in that group and seventh overall. He’ll join Nottingham teammates Henry Zhe-Heimerman and Coen Fierke, along with F-M’s Will Ditre and Kevin Heller, on the sectional All-Star team.
Helping Vang out, Brian Juston got 14th place in 16:41.3, with Mason Dineen going exactly 17 minutes for 16th place. Owen Bressett was 23rd in 17:16 flat and Cooper Kohanski, 25th in 17:19.6, rounded out the scoring column.
C-NS nearly had a runner join Vang at the state meet as sophomore Nolan Zinsmeyer went 16:26.9 to place ninth, just outside the top-five individual window, while Jack Putman finished 11th in 16:31.7.
Only one other Northstar got to the top 20, though, with Tyler Graham finishing in 17:10.6. Joe Massett earned 31st place in 17:24.6, while Ben Rose recorded a top-40 finish going 17:40.1 which was more than 20 seconds behind Liverpool’s fifth runner, Kohanski.
