Liverpool Holds Strong at Chittenango Invite Despite Tough Footing

By Danielle Kennedy

Jamesville, N.Y. - The rain might have held off, but there was still enough water on the course at Jamesville Beach County Park to make the Chittenango Cross Country Invitational more like a slip-n-slide and less like a 5k race.

"I usually love this course but today I hated it," said Liverpool senior captain Nick LeClair.  "It was so muddy and it felt so hard."

A muddy race for runners at the Chittenango XC Invite
(c) Danielle Kennedy

Despite some tough footing and with its top three runners not competing, Liverpool managed to clinch the 31-35  win over McQuaid Jesuit in the Boys Varsity 2 race.

Nick Ciolkowski (Sr.) and Donny Galvin (Jr.) of McQuaid went 1-2 overall with finishing times of 16:23.3 and 16:32.4.

Liverpool finished six runners, five of which were scorers, in the top-ten spots in the field of 135 runners.
Seniors Dylan McCarthy (16:52.2) and Nick LeClair (17:07.7) led the way for the Warriors, finishing in third and fifth places overall.

Hard Work and a Little Bit of Play 

With Liverpool's Varsity squad coming off a big second-place finish last weekend at the Manhattan Invitational, coach Tracey Vannatta said the boys needed a bit of a break.  In two weeks, they'll chase the win against rival Fayetteville-Manlius at the Sectional meet, a feat that hasn't been done since 2007.

"I wanted them to have some fun in a race that's an invite so they can work together as a team and win but not really be too intense," she said.  

But Ryan Comstock still felt the intensity.

The junior fell twice during the 3.1 mile race- once during the first mile and the second time at the 2.5 mile mark.

To add insult to injury, both of these falls happened in the same spot on the course.  

"I took my spikes out of my shoes on Wednesday and it was not my best idea," he said.  "The course was just super muddy."

Comstock still finished in eighth place overall with a time of 17:34.6 as the team's fourth scorer.

Clean Up and Carry On

The top-ten runners on the team will lay low until the Section 3 Championship at Vernon-Verona-Sherrill High School on Saturday, November 1st.  The winner of that race will advance to the New York State Championship one week later at SUNY Canton.  Last year, Liverpool fell to F-M at sectionals 37-24.

Full results courtesy of Leone Timing