With freshman Maria LaMontagne and sophomore Nicole Watterud setting the pace, the Cicero-North Syracuse girls cross country team got the high finishes it needed to finish off a sweep of both of Wednesday’s races against archrival Liverpool at Oneida Shores. The girls race proved the closer of the two contests, as the Northstars needed to claim three of the top four spots to hold off the Warriors 25-30, a sharp contrast to the boys race, where CNS swept the top five and dominated Liverpool in a 15-40 decision. LaMontagne had not raced in September. Her first big event of the season had come Oct. 10, at the Manhattan Invitational, where LaMontagne finished first in a field of nearly 100 rivals in the Varsity A division, beating them by nearly a full minute. Back home at Oneida Shores, LaMontagne improved on that margin. Her time of 17 minutes, 10.8 seconds topped Waterrud, who finished in 18:34, by nearly a minute and a half, and it shattered the Oneida Shores course record of 17:53.5 Nikki Junod set six years ago. To back them up, Jacqlynn Halstead earned fourth place in 19:04, giving CNS a margin Liverpool could not overcome. Still, the Warriors had a first-rate effort, led by Rachel Putman, who finished third in 18:59, five seconds ahead of Halstead. Ashley Letteney earned sixth place in 19:41, while Morgan Mahoney got sixth place (20:06) and Jessica Turner finished seventh in 20:20. Another Warrior runner, Kaitlyn McNamara got ninth place in 20:27, in between CNS teammates Katie Laris (20:24) and Mackenzie Cummings (20:33), who by finishing eighth and 10th, respectively, helped clinch the CNS victory. The boys race saw the Northstars do a clean sweep of the top five. Chris Buchanan again led the charge, as he followed up his second-place showing in the Varsity D race at Manhattan by tearing through the Oneida Shores course in 16 minutes flat. Anthony Lupia took second place in 16:29, well clear of Ken Ryan, whose time of 16:43 left him in third place. Ryan edged out Eric Hart, who was fourth in 16:45, while Tom McAndrew used his fifth-place clocking of 16:52 to complete the top-five sweep. Brandon Rudd just missed out on cutting into that CNS quintet, so the Warriors runner had to settle for sixth place in 16:55, inches ahead of Zach Crosby in seventh (16:56) and Anthony Ostuni in eighth (16:57). Drew Henry earned ninth place in 17:07, with Anthony Romano in 10th place (17:10) to round things out. CNS had another big assignment on Saturday, going to the New Hartford Invitational and nearly pulling off a sweep against its main foe at the meet, Saratoga Springs. The girls Northstars did prevail, 30 points to Saratoga’s 56, as LaMontagne won her third race in eight days with a blistering time of 18:42.3. No other runner even broke 20 minutes on the New Hartford course. Waterrud fit her way into third place, in 20:25.6, while Halstead took fifth place in 21:04.2 and Colburn got seventh place in 21:15.6. Laris closed out the scoring in 15th place (22:02.9), just ahead of Jessica Jelfo, who was 16th in 22:03.5. The boys race at New Hartford saw CNS get 44 points, second only to Saratoga’s total of 34 points, and the individual event followed a similar course as Buchanan blazed to a time of 16:30.6, beaten by Saratoga’s Sam Place, who won in 16:24.7. Behind Buchanan, Lupia took sixth place in 17:47.4, while Hart managed eighth place in 17:57 flat and Gill gained 12th place in 18:16.1. Ryan was 16th in 18:25.1, less than a second ahead of Walther (18:25.8) in 17th place.