East Aurora Advertiser

Invitational Brings Additional Competition to Cross Country Teams


The East Aurora boys and girls cross country teams traveled to the McQuaid Invitational this past weekend in Rochester to line up against some of the best competition in New York, not to mention Canada, Ohio and Pennsylvania.

The boys cross country team includes Colin Cassidy, Gavin McPherson, Thomas Wlodarczyk, Nick Ebling, Alex Hillyard, Jake Sigeti and Evan Owens.

The East Aurora squads participated in the AA Seeded races which included higher ranked B schools and several A schools based on their student enrollments and team rankings. The East Aurora girls team is currently ranked #1 Class B in New York while the boys team is ranked fourth.

The girls varsity team set the pace for East Aurora putting their top four runners in the top 25 led by the 2-3 finish of Megan McLaughlin, 2nd, Karis Ertel, 3rd, followed by: Geneva Green 10th, Maggie McLaughlin 13th, Emilia O’Leary 25th, Celia Cocca 38th and Annika Safford 73rd. The squad scored a low 52 points to state ranked Burnt Hills 95, Honeoye Falls-Lima 156, and Pittsford Mendon 167.

The boys team turned in their best performances of the season led by: Nick Ebling 10th, Alex Hillyard 11th, Thomas Wlodarczyk 19th, Gavin McPherson 38th, Jake Sigeti 48th, Evan Owens 58th, and Colin Cassidy 95th.

The girls cross country team includes Celia Cocca, Karis Ertel, Maggie McLauglin, Annika Safford, row 1 l-r Megan McLaughlin, Emilia O’Leary and Geneva Green.

Their efforts were good enough to secure the runner-up spot in team scoring with 124 points behind Burnt-Hills 72, Pittsford Mendon 3rd with 131, and Xavier’s 148. Pioneer-Holland was 5th with 227 points.

In overall “merged” results, comparing all participants in all races, the girls team finished third behind just nationally ranked Shenendehowa and Beavercreek Ohio. The boys finished a strong 4th in the overall merge, comparing all 196 competing teams, behind Burnt Hills, Guilderland, and Shenendehowa. 

The boys junior varsity, missing some of their talent due to sickness, placed third in their Medium/Large School JV Race led by: Nolan Axford 4th, Zach Passmore 6th, Mason Wiedeman 34th, Pierce Ticen 35th, Aiden Mclaughlin 58th, Joe Chudy 63rd, Cameron Jarembek 75th, and Neal Bachman 98th rounding out the top 100 finishers.

The girls junior varsity team was led by 2nd place Samantha Hulme followed by: Cheyene Booker 16th, Leah Stucke 17th, Teresa Welker 33rd, Riley Hulme 43rd, Jorielle Arriaga 63rd, Laya Davis 71st, Melena Mercurio 76th rounding out the top 100 finishers.

The boys and girls cross country teams also opened up their ECIC Dual Meet Season on Tuesday, hosing Starpoint on the EA High School 3.0 mile course. Both boys and girls varsity and junior varsity teams turned in winning performances scoring a low perfect score of 15 across the board, adding to their current 18 year win streak. 

East Aurora will travel to Amherst on Wednesday for their second ECIC dual meet of the season, where they will race on the Grover Cleveland Golf Course. The race is set to begin at 5 p.m.

Leah Stucke and Cheyene Booker race next to each other during a recent meet.

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