Our top 5 Cayuga County-area high school athletes of the week for Oct. 6-12

Jacob Urish Sports reporter

Editor's note: The Citizen has introduced a new feature to its sports section with the top five high school athletes of the previous week. We'll be spotlighting some of the best performances we saw and giving readers the opportunity to vote for them or nominate athletes we might have missed. Please send any and all feedback to .

Who is your Cayuga County-area athlete of the week for Oct. 6-12?

You voted: Boys cross-country: Austin Ferrin, Auburn Field hockey: Mallory Brown, Weedsport Football: Johntae Smith, Auburn Football: Kuchaun Gorman, Jordan-Elbridge Volleyball: Caitlin Salmonsen, Cato-Meridian

Last week's poll winner: Joey Lafluer, Jordan-Elbridge football.

Boys cross-country: Austin Ferrin, Auburn The Auburn senior was the first runner to cross the finish line at a meet for the second straight week last week. In a 20-35 Maroons victory over Fayetteville-Manlius on Wednesday, Ferrin took the top spot with a time of 16:28. The week prior, the senior placed first with a time of 16:27 in Auburn's 16-42 win over Jamesville-DeWitt. Due in large part to Ferrin's outings over the 2024 season, Auburn boys cross-country was a perfect 7-0 in its one-on-one meets. The Maroons will wrap up their regular season on Saturday when they take part in the Weedsport Invitational.

Field hockey: Mallory Brown, Weedsport Since the Wolverines' season-opening loss against Moravia, Brown and her team have not missed a beat. Weedsport has won 14 consecutive matchups, and the junior has scored at least one goal in her team's last seven games. Brown scored her first goal of the week in a 2-1 victory over Port Byron/Union Springs on Wednesday. She then followed that up with a two-goal performance in the Wolverines' 5-1 victory over Cato-Meridian on Friday. With one game left in the regular season, Brown leads Weedsport in assists with seven, and is second on the team in goals with 10.

Football: Johntae Smith, Auburn

The Maroons scored 39 unanswered points over the course of the second and third quarter in their win against Fowler on Friday, and Smith contributed 12 of them. His first score of the game came in the second quarter on a 2-yard rushing touchdown that grew Auburn's lead to two touchdowns. With Fowler having snap issues for the bulk of the game, Smith took advantage when he recovered a botched snap in the end zone to extend his team's lead to 38 in the third quarter. He also added on one sack for good measure. A week prior to Friday's all-around outing, the junior rushed for a career-high 138 yards and two scores in a win over Henninger .

Football: Kuchaun Gorman, Jordan-Elbridge

Behind a career performance from the senior running back, the Eagles came away with their second win of the season on Saturday. Gorman rushed for a career-high 220 yards and three touchdowns on 18 carries in the 46-28 road win over Altmar-Parish-Williamstown. To go along with his production on the ground, he added 3.5 tackles while playing on the other side of the ball. Saturday's performance marked the second time in Gorman's career that he has rushed for over 200 yards, with the first time coming against Midlakes last season.

Volleyball: Caitlin Salmonsen, Cato-Meridian Though the Blue Devils went 1-2 over their three matchups last week, the senior had her best stretch of the season. Salmonsen totaled 18 points against Bishop Grimes on Monday, and then followed that up with a team-high 32 total points — 18 coming from serves — in a contest with Jordan-Elbridge on Wednesday. In Cato-Meridian's victory over Mexico on Friday, Salmonsen put up 15 total points and eight digs in the team's seventh win of the year. Through 14 games, the senior leads the Blue Devils with 194 total points, with 78 being from kills.

Sports reporter Jacob Urish can be reached at or (315) 282-2288.

Sports reporter