In the latest installment of the state Class A girls cross country rankings, Baldwinsville was nowhere to be found, while West Genesee comfortably sat in the no. 16 spot.
And that ranking didn’t matter one bit last Wednesday afternoon, when the Bees went to Camillus and knocked off the Wildcats 26-29, part of an impressive sweep that also saw B’ville easily handle Syracuse East by a 15-49 margin.
Granted, WG was without Carly Benson, who is in the state Class A top 10 among individuals, but B’ville was still facing a high-quality Wildcat lineup, and still prevailed.
Marissa Lathrop pulled away and, in a time of 18 minutes, 37 seconds, led a 1-2 sweep, with Maizy Ludden working her way to second place in 18:54.
WG’s Grace Craig (19:13) and Elise Dunshee (19:16) took the next two spots, but the Bees’ Lindsay Guild was fifth, in 19:36, and Kelley Hull, in 19:52, followed the Wildcats’ Kendall Dombroske (19:51) to the line and matched Maria Matkoski’s time. Emily McComb, in 20:36, clinched the victory.
Exciting as that was, B’ville’s boys team, who is state-ranked (no. 23, to be exact), may have enjoyed a more dramatic effort, needing all of its depth to edge West Genesee by a single point, 29-30, while also taming Syracuse East 19-44.
Though no Bees runner proved as quick as WG’s tandem of David Leff (15:53) and Will Randall (15:55), who went 1-2, Arden Kellner led the comeback, getting to third place in a clocking of 16:09.
More important was seeing Ryan DeLola cross the finish line in 16:29, right behind WG’s Logan McAnulty and Syracuse East’s David Houck. From there, the Bees swept the rest of the top 10, with Michael Boyce, in 16:35, leading a pack that included Austin Bolton (16:46), Cameron Morrissey (16:50) and Colin Spaulding (16:52).
All of this followed the B’ville girls going to the E.J. Herrmann Invitational at Proctor Park in Utica on Sept. 27 and finishing third out of 16 teams in the large-school division with 83 points, just behind Bethlehem and Niskayuna, a pair of Section II powers that each got 75 points.
Lathrop finished third in a time of 20:25.8, not far from the winning 19:51.3 posted by Niskayuna’s Abigail Spiers, with Ludden gaining ifth place in 20:46.5.
No other Bees runner cracked the top 20, with Hull the next-best finisher in 23rd place (22:09.2), two spots ahead of Elizabeth Fawwaz (22:11.0) in 25th place. McComb got to 27th place in 22:26.6 as Claire McMahon (23:23.9) and Mia Bolton (23:43.7) were 42nd and 45th, respectively.
