TOWN OF FENTON -- Five years ago, the "fierce" athletic make-up of a sixth-grade female student caught the eye of Rich Bernstein.

Bernstein, a guidance counselor at DeWitt Middle School and longtime Ithaca High cross country, and track and field coach, has become adept at picking out Little Red runners of the future.

"I look for fierceness, especially in girls. You look for those tough girls, sometimes they play a lot of sports, sometimes they don't, but I saw her in gym class (racing boys in the mile), and boys being scared to race her," Bernstein said. "So I said, that's the one I want. I kind of knew her because I coached her older brother, Jack Carroll, who was one of my captains."

Mary Carroll quickly found she loved to run, and forsook swimming at the time for the hard-trodden paths of cross country. On an overcast, chilly afternoon Thursday at Chenango Valley State Park, Carroll blew the Class AA girls field away with an 18-minute, 36.3-second performance that was 98 seconds better than runner-up Lani Nagle of Corning.

"She challenged the course," said Bernstein, who called Carroll the best female cross country runner he's ever coached. "That's what she does."

The performance highlighted a sweep of the Class AA team titles, with Ithaca's girls knocking off 2008 champ Corning, 20-38. Zoe McAlear, Taryn VanValen and Megan Mormile finished third through fifth, with Amelia Kaufman placing seventh.

"I'm really happy about that because the last two years, we haven't won as a team," Carroll said. "Only five of us have gotten to go to states. So it's a big honor to take the whole team to states, because we all deserve it."

Each sectional team champion, in addition to the five best runners from each classification, will compete at the New York State Public High School Athletic Association championships on Nov. 14 at SUNY Plattsburgh.

Carroll's time Thursday was excellent, considering she ran most of the race by herself.

"I knew it was probably going to be me and the clock, so I was just trying to push myself through the whole race," she said. "I love this course. It's really fun for me to run."

Other girls' team champions included Vestal (Class A), Owego (B), Newark Valley (C) and Thomas A. Edison (D). Johnson City's Lauren Mullins posted the No. 1 overall time with an 18:26.9. Carroll's was second-best on the day.

Other highlights from the girls' races included:

* Newark Valley swept the Class C titles for the fifth straight year, as a new cast of Cardinals begun carving their niche.

After multiple seasons of Erin Cawley, Joe Blazey and Jamie Vavra topping the fields, it was freshman Jenna Cupp and senior Katie Weeks finishing 1-2 in the girls' field, with senior Jessica Johnson placing fourth.

"Jess Johnson has been our three girl for a lot of years and never really got the credit, because we've had girls like Erin Cawley in front of her," NV coach Eric D'Arcy said. "She's done a great job over the years."

Angela Richter (8th), Sommer Tobey (10th) and Rebekah Meyers (11th) helped NV capture six of the top 11 spots.

* Lansing placed fourth in the Class C standings with 113 points, aided by strong showings from sophomore Shanna Swanson and junior Kathryn Shaw. The two finished back-to-back in sixth and seventh place, respectively, with times of 21:00.5 and 21:02.5, to qualify for the state meet.

Trumansburg's Danielle Peck will also make the trip to Plattsburgh. With a ninth-place time of 21:12.3, Peck was the fifth and final entry out of Class C.

* Candor and Marathon both qualified runners to the state meet in Class D. The Indians will send sophomore Aubrie Russell for the third straight year. Russell finished second overall in Class D (20:56.9), behind Edison's Sarah Palmer.

"I think I did all right today," Russell said. "I didn't bring as much mentally as I should have to the race. It was a good race, there were a lot of good people to push me."

Marathon's Elizabeth Jewiss qualified with a third-place showing of 20:59.4.