QUEENSBURY – With individual Section III Class C championships already secured, Skaneateles cross country runners Lucy Fleckenstein and Tritan Boucher both would seek more.
During Saturday’s New York State Public High School Athletic Association championships at Queensbury, the Lakers’ duo would both find themselves ahead of most of the field – and in Fleckenstein’s case, get all the way into the top 10.
It was the next-to-last of the eight races on the state meet card and Fleckenstein, having waited until the afternoon, proved herself ready for the biggest stage.
Covering the 3.1-mile Queensbury course in 19 minutes 10.7 seconds, Fleckenstein made it to 10th place, beaten only among local runners by South Jefferson eighth-grader Ellie Roberts, who was ninth in 19:08 flat.
As a whole, Section III finished third with 277 points, close behind the 229 of Section VI and 235 of Section I. Fleckenstein was helped by her sectional All-Star teammates along with South Jefferson’s third-place team performance anchored by Roberts and Annabelle Renzi (19:16.5), both of whom were in the top 15.
Adirondack’s Cora Hindsill was 13th in 19:15.9 and Hindsill’s teammate, Johannah Northrup, got 19th place in 19:25.4 three spots ahead of Cazenovia’s Lily Kogut (19:33.8) in 22nd place. Mexico’s Aubrey Herrington finished in 20:46.9.
Earlier day, Boucher got his turn in the boys state Class C race, joined by two of his neighbors, Marcellus senior Liam Eldridge and Westhill senior Edward Popp, along with Oneida’s Tyson Fuller and Cazenovia’s Jake Woolbert.
Boucher finished in 16:35.8, putting him in 24th place, inches behind Fuller, whose 16:35.5 was the best Section III effort, both of them just ahead of Woolbert (16:43.7) in 26th place.
Close behind them were Eldridge and Popp, both of them recording top-40 finishes as Eldridge got 32nd place in 16:56.4 and Popp just missed breaking the 17-minute mark, his 17:00.2 good for 38th place.
