No matter what the circumstances or background, any girls cross country victory over Fayetteville-Manlius in the 21st century is a major event, especially for Section III schools.

So it was for Cicero-North Syracuse when it confronted, and beat, the Hornets in the Varsity Large School division of Saturday's 70th annual Baldwinsville Invitational.

The Northstars finished with 41 points to the Hornets' 47, the scores no doubt affected by the quality of the 18-team field but also by the way C-NS placed four of its runners in the top 10 and got the crucial fifth time from Katy Harbold.

Up front, the duel was between Kate Putman and Izzie Sullivan, and the F-M sophomore got away to win in 17 minutes, 30.2 seconds to Putman's 17:41.4.

Then Gabby Putman got to fourth place in 18:27.1 behind F-M's Hannah Kaercher (18:12.4) and, more importantly, Hannah Boyle was eighth in 18:56.6 and Marissa Navarra ninth in 18:59.5 ahead of the Hornets' third runner, Camille Ryan, who was 10th.

And though F-M's Isabella Adrian and Maria Khalifeh got the 16th and 17th spots, respectively, Harbold followed them and, when she finished 18th in 20:01.5, C-NS had the victory.  

Days after announcing she would attend defending NCAA champion North Carolina State, Kate Putman made her way to the Tar Heel State – and made quite a statement.

In the Adidas Cross Country Challenge on Sept. 17 in Cary, N.C., Putman managed to finish second out of 227 runners, her time of 17 minutes, 42.9 seconds trailing only Maryland runner Leah Stephens, who won in 17:21.2.

All of this made C-NS's twin defeats to Liverpool back on Sept. 14 a bit easier to take, and the Northstars quickly got back to winning form in league competition last Tuesday, sweeping Nottingham.

Putman ran again three days after the Adidas meet and, in 18:59, was well clear of the 20:06 from Boyle, Gabby Putman and Navarra, who ran together. Harbold finished fifth in 20:47.

C-NS's boys team beat Nottingham 22-37. Justin Asch, in 19:01, was second to the Bulldogs' Henry Zhe-Heimerman (18:08), while Tyler Graham was third in 19:26. Ashton Murdock had a fourth-place clocking of 19:57 as Jordan Hnatiw, in 20:21, beat out the 20:25 from Evan Champ.