xc girls 600

The Lansing cross-country program closed out its regular season on Friday October 26th on the hilly, challenging 3.2-mile course at Marathon.

Lansing's varsity girls team put two racers into the top 10 finishers, with Catie Eisenhut placing third (second among scorers, with 20:27.8) and Emmaline Jackson right behind her at 5th place (20:39.0). Kinsley Jacobs (16th), Eden Jackson (32nd), and Allison Keefe (40th) rounded out the Lady Bobcat finishers in the field of 68 racers. Overall the Lady Bobcats team finished tied for 3rd place with Waverly, behind Newark Valley and the winning Elmira Notre Dame team.

On boys side, Ryan Barton led the Bobcats with a 22nd-place finish (19:26.80) in a field of 89 runners, followed by Teddy Brenner (35th, 20:10.20), Sam Bell (44th, 20:41.40), and Zachary Hwang, Caden Michalec, and Ben Caveney (68th, 69th, and 79th respectively). Overall Lansing placed 8th behind the Groton boys XC squad, a respectable finish given that the Bobcats' lead runner Jack Thomas sat out while nursing an injury. The Lansing boys also raced five JV runners, led by Dowain Geesey's 14th place finish (23:27.40) among the 33 junior-varsity competitors, followed by Anders Axelson (16th), Trey Warner (22nd), Daniel Dedrick (25th), and Arjun Kodali (27th).

"We saw some especially strong performances from our five through 12 runners on the boys team as they were either wrapping up their seasons or vying for one of the 10 entries we are allowed at sectionals," said Lansing XC head coach Becca Lovenheim.   

Now the varsity XC teams head into the post-season, kicking off with the sectionals meet at Chenango Valley State Park near Binghamton on Thursday, November 1—where the Bobcats girls XC will get a rematch with Waverly and Newark Valley and the boys will regain Thomas to put their team back at full strength. For the Lansing modified cross-country teams, the IAC Championships were their season finale. The boys mod team narrowly lost to Waverly by one point, with Seth Riley placing third among scorers, followed by Thomas Stallone at 6th, Parker Vooris at 10th, Lucius Dann at 16th, and Thomas Weels at 18th. Brandon Brotherton and Jack Negley also placed 19th and 20th, as Lansing put more scorers in the top 20 than any of other seven schools at the modified meet.

The Lansing modified girls put two runners among the top 10 scorers (Vanessa Bell at 3rd and Domenica Reeve at 10th), followed by Abby Brown (13th), Loveta Geesey (17th), and Sophie Scanlon (21st). "Our modified performances were definitely a highlight of the meet for Lansing," said Lovenheim. "For the boys, a 1-minute spread from first to seventh runner is so exciting. And on the girls side, their finishes were gutsy and strong. To come in third is a huge accomplishment for their team of just five new runners."

The Lansing modified teams will celebrate this week with an end-of-season banquet, while the varsity XC programs look to stretch their season deeper in November at sectionals.

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