OBSERVER Staff Reports

Overall on Tuesday, the girls cross country race at Forness Park in Olean was won by Jericha Petrella of Dunkirk with a time of 21:00. Here are other notable cross country performances on Tuesday.

The Silver Creek Cross Country teams met at Jamestown for a meet against Jamestown, Randolph, and Gowanda. Jamestown was victorious on the boys side of the race with 39 points. Randolph finished second with 44, Gowanda took third with 49, and Silver Creek in last with 91. Randolph’s Ronan McDonald was the individual winner, finishing with a time of 17:38. Silver Creek’s finishers were Gabe Rhodes 19:36, Lucas Lawrie (21:08), Rocco Azzarella (23:01), Aiden Jamison (23:23), Shawn Kelly (24:00), Marcello Solis-Barrientos (24:56), Ethan Cross (26:32).

On the girl’s side, Silver Creek won the meet with 36 points, Jamestown took second with 47, Gowanda finished third with 65, and Randolph finished right behind with 67. Silver Creek’s Juliana Flick was the individual winner, finishing with a time of 20:54. The rest of the Black Knights finishes were Emma Romanik (23:47), Melanie Wilson (23:52), Daisy League (24:10), Amber Lockwood (25:47), Ellie Decker (26:36), Julia Kennedy (27:29).

Flick took a commanding first place finish in the event for Silver Creek, besting every other competitor by almost two minutes.

“She ran a nearly perfect race. To maintain that kind of pace and be that far ahead is really outstanding,” said Silver Creek coach Mike Janis.

Silver Creek’s next meet will be Saturday at East Aurora.

Fredonia

The Fredonia Hillbilles Cross Country teams were in Panama for a meet against CSP, Falconer, and Franklinville on Tuesday night.

On the girls side of things, Emily Brown was back in action for the Billies, finishing in first place with a time of 20:30, while CSP took the overall event with 35 points, with Fredonia finishing second with 47 points, Falconer in third with 57 points, and Franklinville in fourth with 72 points.

“Emily (Brown) knew this was going to be a challenging race, so she was able to run very smart in that she knew when to put surges in and had a good strategy,” said Fredonia coach Carol Zirkle.

The rest of the top ten finishers were CSP’s Hannah Schaumann (22:22), Fredonia’s Savannah Lashbrook (22:34), CSP’s Haley O’Dell 22:57, Michala LeBaron (23:38), Fredonia’s Julia Lebaron (23:39), Falconer’s Tabitha Clark (23:40), CSP’s Mckenzie Gratto (23:58), Panama’s Taron Herman (24:03), and Leann Sim (24:10).

The rest of Fredonia’s finishers were Ashlyn Ambrose (24:25) in 13th place, Anna Schroeder (29:23) in 24th, Lucy Prevet (29:38) in 25th, Mckenna Miller (31:33) in 31st, and Emma Munsch (34:48) in 34th.

On the boys side, Falconer’s Bryce Baglia (18:05) was the individual winner, with his team taking home first place as well with 19 points, while Fredonia took second with 43, CSP ended in third with 77, and Franklinville in fourth with 87.

Fredonia’s finishers were Chris Anear in second with a time of 18:44, 7th Adam Lesch in seventh (20:04), 10th Fred Gullo (21:10) in 10th, 13th Avery Willebrandt (22:00) in 13th, 14th Oliver Madariaga (22:03) in 14th, 23rd Matt Abbatoy (22:53) in 23rd, Stephen Keefe (23:13) in 24th, Clayton Frazier (24:15) in 29th, Alex Field (24:44) in 31st, Owen Caserta (24:52) in 32nd, Cedric Howard (25:42) in 33rd, Brenden Nero (25:46) in 35th, Williams Prevet in 37th, Gabe Helwig (28:16) in 38th, Jack Fortna (31:31) in 42nd, and Josh Kneitinger (32:19) in 44th.

Fredonia is next in action Tuesday at Gowanda.

Maple Grove

Maple Grove hosted Catt LV, Allegany-Limestone, and Frewsburg at Long Point State Park. The Red Dragons came home with 4 wins including Ava Crist leading the way in the girls race with a time of 19:21 to help the lady MGXC team win and Peter Auer led the boys MGXC team win with a time of 17:19.

Maple Grove lost a dear friend Rob Liebers on Monday morning and before the teams took the start line, both girls and boys teams as well as the coaches Bella Zuroski, Shane Hetrick and Stephen Matteson decided that we would run this meet for Rob.

“I told the team that any time they felt like they hurt they were to think of Rob and he would be there with them to take the pain away and help them to the finish line,” said Matteson. “I was extremely proud of my team today, many times it is hard to get out of school and run a hard race and these kids did it for Rob. Our team had multiple runners run their best time of the season.”

Not only were the boys led by a strong performance by Peter Auer, but Riley Auer and Lukas Baer had great races, according to coach Matteson. The girls were led by Ava Crist’s season best time and Tori Pavlock and Hannah Tarbrake had fantastic finishes also, stated Matteson. Coach Matteson was very proud of his team’s performances and reminded the team of a saying that Rob Liebers said, “Let’s Always Run”.

The boys total scores featured Maple Grove victorious with 17 points, Allegany-Limestone in second with 41, Frewsburg in third with 79, and Catt./Little-Valley in fourth with 117. The top ten boys finishers were Peter Auer (17:19), Riley Auer, Lukas Baer, Darius Jones, all from Maple Grove, Ryan Wisniewski and Jacob Brink of Allegany-Limestone in fifth and sixth, Maple Grove’s Drew Kelemen in seventh, All./Limestone’s Donald Higgs in eighth, Frewsburg’s Toby Gifford in ninth, and All./Limestone’s Daniel Casey in 10th.

The girls scores also feature Maple Grove victorious with 23 points, with Allegany-Limestone in second with 51, Frewsburg in third with 78, and Catt./Little-Valley in fourth with 82. Crist finished first for Maple Grove at 19:21, followed by All./Limestone’s Angelina Napoleon in second, Frewsburg’s Acacia Barber in third, followed by Christina Peppy, Abby Brunenavs, Tori Pavlock, and Hannah Tarbrake, all from Maple Grove, with eighth place being held by All./Limestone’s Maddie Straub, Catt./Little-Valley’s Emma Pocobello in ninth, and Frewsburg’s Rylee Gore in tenth.