All of the Baldwinsville cross country runners were glad to have its season opener against West Genesee at Camillus Middle School pushed back to Thursday afternoon.
They were supposed to run a day earlier, but a heat index in the triple digits caused a postponement. This did not mean, though, that it would affect the quality of the Bees’ efforts.
B’ville swept the meet, with the closer race on the girls side as the Bees prevailed 24-31 by earning four of the top six individual spots, led by Justus Holden-Betts, who in 21 minutes, 13 seconds pulled away from the pack.
Right behind WG’s Hannah Craybas (21:34.6) in second place, Bees solidified its margin when Annabelle Horan (21:38.2) and Olivia Creelman (21:38.7) finished ahead of WG’s Mia Mitchell, who settled for fifth place in 21:40.1.
Leah Carpenter (21:56.6) was sixth to clinch it for the Bees. WG’s Natalie Buckhout, in 22:01.4, beat out Liz Morey (22:24.8) and Kendall Dombroske (22:30.1) for seventh place, while McKenzie Schmidt was 10th in 22:33 flat.
The boys from B’ville used its depth to overwhelm West Genesee 20-41, claiming eight of the next nine spots after the Wildcats’ Matt Bartolotta won the individual race in 17:33.1.
Conor McManus got second place in 17:47.4, with Sam Kellner third in 18:01.4. Adam Davis had a fourth-place time of 18:06.2 as Colin Delaney rolled to fifth place in 18:39.2.
John Arvantides needed exactly 18:44 to beat out WG’s Graye Mehl (18:45.9) for sixth place. Then Joe Licameli (18:52.5), Anthony DelVecchio (18:55.8) and Aaron Sprague (18:56.6) rounded out the top 10.
Two days later, B’ville ran in the Chittenango Invitational on the same course where the Section III championships will take place in November.
Placed in the Varsity 2 race, the boys and girls Bees each finished second in their respective events, both trailing Liverpool, who were also tops in the overall girls standings when the three races were combined.
Justus Holden-Betts finished third in the girls Varsity 2 race in 18:54.8 behind the Liverpool duo of Madison Neuner (18:26.6) and Jenna Schulz (18:36.8) as Creelman took 12th place in 20:28.1.
Horan, who took 20th place in 21:35 flat, was one spot ahead of Carpenter (21:40.7) in the team race. It was the same for Schmidt, whose 22:25 flat beat out Vivian Holden-Betts (22:27.1) for 29th place ahead of the 23:00.4 from Maya Hewitt.
McManus paced the B’ville boys as he got sixth place in his Varsity 2 race in 17:02.9, while Kellner went 17:16.3 to finish 12th and Davis (17:25.1) took 14th place.
Delaney made his way to 16th place in 17:38.5, with Arvantides getting to 21st place in 18:11.3. Licameli, in 18:17 flat, finished 22nd and Justin Chimento gained 30th place in 18:30.6.
And this leads to Wednesday’s showdown between B’ville and Fayetteville-Manlius at Durgee, with a meet against Liverpool at Long Branch Park to follow on Sept. 19.
