All through the month of September, the Cicero-North Syracuse cross country team kept matching up with West Genesee. Each time — whether at Jamesville Beach Park Sept. 11, or at Vernon-Verona-Sherrill a week later — the girls Northstars would prevail, despite the individual title won by Wildcats freshman Laura Leff. But the CNS boys, despite the winning presence of Chris Buchanan, tasted defeat. When they got together once more last Wednesday at Oneida Shores for their CNY Counties League showdown, the exact same thing took place. CNS earned a comfortable 17-43 victory in the girls match, but watched WG prevail 23-32 in the boys match. One big difference here was that Leff did not run in the girls event, so the Northstars had an even greater advantage. Without Leff to chase down, Nicole Watterud easily took individual honors, crossing the finish line in 18 minutes, 46 seconds. Jacqlynn Halstead finished second, in 19:22, and Katie Laris (19:58) completed a 1-2-3 sweep before WG’s Abby Kastick (20:03) put her team on the board. Quickly, CNS resumed control, as Marissa Colburn finished fifth in 20:38 and Mackenzie Cummings, in sixth place (20:51), rounded out the scoring column. Further back, Kaitlin Donohoe was eighth in 21:06 and Micaela Donabella (21:25) was 10th. Just as in the VVS meet, the boys race saw Buchanan fight off Wildcats star Billy Gabriel, as the CNS senior won in 15 minutes, 49 seconds and Gabriel (15:57) settled for second place. But three Wildcat runners — Martin Leff (16:03), John DeLallo (16:13) and Matt Byrnes (16:33) — finished before Ken Ryan took sixth place in 16:35. Eric Hart (16:45) and Anthony Lupia (16:46) were seventh and eighth, respectively, with Neill Gill ninth in 16:51. CNS would find more victories on Saturday, when they went to the Tully Invitational and competed against more than 15 opponents, large and small schools alike. On the boys end, the Northstars edged Maine-Endwell, 37 points to 40, for the team title and Buchanan again proved the fastest runner of the day. On a 3.2-mile Tully course, Buchanan won in 16 minutes, eight seconds, a full 50 seconds ahead of Manlius-Pebble Hill’s Ian Trepanier. As for the help, Lupia rolled to third place in 17:01.5, while Hart put together a sixth-place time of 17:11.6. Alex Bottorff claimed 15th place in 17:26.3 as Gill, in 16th place (17:28.2), clinched the victory ahead of Ryan (17:37.0) in 19th place. It was an odd situation in the girls race. CNS finished second to Fayetteville-Manlius, the nation’s top-ranked team, as the Hornets, even with its best runners not in the field, earned 32 points to the Northstars’ 67 points. Since those F-M stars were out, though, it gave Watterud a chance to go to the front — and she did, winning in 19 minutes, 8.5 seconds as Pulaski star Katie Weisenburger took second place in 19:25.2. Halstead finished ninth in 20:13.9, while Colburn worked her way to 16th place in 20:44 flat. Laris turned in a 20th-place finish in 21:03.5 as Jelfo (21:25.3) and Cummings (21:27.0) finished 25th and 26th, respectively.