For a few days, members of the Baldwinsville boys cross country team found their season in jeopardy due to an investigation into an alleged hazing incident.
On Sept. 20, the Bees were sidelined, and could not attend or participate in that weekend’s 62nd annual Baldwinsville Invitational. They had to wait out the completion of the district’s full investigation into the hazing charges, which included interviews of all 52 team members.
Then, on Tuesday, decisions and punishments were handed down to some team members, but the rest were allowed to return to practice, in time for the meet against Syracuse West Wednesday afternoon at Durgee Junior High School.
With some runners missing due to the disciplinary action, B’ville still defeated Syracuse West 23-36 as Jack Martin dominated the individual standings, posting a time of 16 minutes, 4 seconds to beat West’s Soloman Lawrence (16:58) by nearly a full minute.
Ryan DeLola finished third, in 17:04, while Steve Petrelli gained fifth place in 17:16 and Brett DeLola (17:21) got sixth place after West’s Eli Welling (17:07) finished fourth.
Not until Cameron Morrissey crossed the line in eighth place with a time of 17:41 did the Bees clinch the title, backed up by efforts from Harrison Warner (17:48) and Denis Keegan (17:51), who rounded out the top 10.
Free from all the controversy, the B’ville girls cross country team dominated Syracuse East 15-50, sweeping the top nine spots by the time the race was done.
It was close out front, where Rachel Miller, in 20 minutes, 20 seconds, edged out Marissa Lathrop (20:21) to win the race, while Hannah Olds took third place in 20:36.
Mia Bolton edged out Emily McComb for fourth place, though both finished in 20:52. Nadine Dickter got to sixth place in 21:17, with Madison Gonzalez (21:35) just ahead of Cierra Allen and Kirby Socker (21:37) for seventh place.
