The Oneida Daily Dispatch (Oneida, NY)
VVS, Cazenovia capture Section III titles
The Red Devils took top prize in Class C boys cross country, and Caz took the honors in Class B girls volleyball.
Saturday’s Results
Boy’s Cross Country
VERNON-VERONA-SHERRILL 89, HANNIBAL 107, MARCELLUS 127 » The VVS Red Devils captured the Section III Class C cross country title on Saturday.
As has been the case all season, Owen Walker led VVS with a 16:32.2 pace on the 5K course. Walker’s time was good enough for first out of a total of 152 Class C runners, which also would have been good enough for tops in the Class B and Class D.
Though his spot at the individual level meant an individual section title, Walker’s performance alone would not have guaranteed a ticket to states, however. Fortunately for VVS coach Mike Dunne, some of his runners saved their best performances for the Section III tournament.
“Trevor Kline was the key performance as he ran his best speed rating of his career. Robbie Vandresar, Joe Guertin and Andrew Wright also ran very good races,” Dunne said. “Matt Palmer our 8th would have displaced runners on over half the teams in Section 3. We were very proud of the performance and look forward to another week of training as we prepare for states.”
VVS’ Owen Rose (17:57.3) and Spencer Walker (18:08.7) finished second and third for the Red Devils to help buoy an impressive team performance.
Girl’s Cross Country
CHRISTIAN BROTHERS ACADEMY 49, VERNON-VERONA-SHERRILL78, CLINTON81 » The VVS girl’s cross country side finished the season with a second-place finish at the Section III Class C championships.
Delaney Brewer paced the Red Devils with an overall time of 20:37.7 on 3.1 mile course. The time was the sixth best on the day and good enough for Brewer to
earn a spot in the individual tournament. In a field consisting of 107 runners, Mary Breckenridge finished 10th overall with a 20:56.3 and Olivia Furman placed 15th overall, posting a 21:15.0 on the day.
Girl’s Volleyball
CAZENOVIA 3, WESTHILL 1 » The Cazenovia Lakers are the Section III Class B volleyball champs, again.
Seemingly a case of deja vu, one year after defeating Westhill 3-1 for the title, coach Brian Ellithorpe’s side again defeated Westhill 3-1 on Saturday, buoyed by an impressive stat-line from Morgan Hodinger who posted 5 aces, 10 kills, 3 blocks, and 15 digs in the Laker victory.
Cazenovia took the first set 25-23, before dropping the second set 16-25. Knotted at 1-1, Cazenovia took a grueling third set 26-24 before clinching the title with a 25-21 fourth set.