Glad to be back in competition, each of the Baldwinsville cross country teams could not have chosen a more storied opponent than the one it faced to open its truncated 2020 campaign.
Absent the opportunity to pursue Section III Class A or state honors, the Bees would mostly race on Saturday mornings against its Salt City Athletic Conference Metro division rivals.
And the first one just happened to be Fayetteville-Manlius, who arrived as the guests on B’ville’s Senior Day and, at least on the boys side, got quite a challenge.
Though the Bees lost 22-33, it had a great run from Colin Delaney, who in 16 minutes, 58.9 seconds beat everyone except F-M’s Peyton Geeherer, who pulled away to win in a blistering 15:43.8.
Solomon Holden-Betts, in 17:15.2, was fourth to the Hornets’ Daniel Patrick (17:11.3) in third place, so it took the Hornets claiming the next three spots to hang on for the team victory.
Meanwhile, B’ville showcased its depth as it had the next eight finishers. Ryan Quinn, in 17:59.4, led them, with Ryan Wilson (18:26.0) and Jeff Ragonese (18:34.4) also in the top 10.
Aidan Micho was next, making his way to 11th place in 18:36.9, followed by the quartet of Tom Hagopian (18:41.8), Adam Kozman (19:03.4), James Cary (19:31.3) and Connor Waldron (19:34.2).
Against the 11-time national champion F-M girls, B’ville would also run quite well, even if the 15-50 score didn’t reflect that effort.
McKenzie Schmidt led the Bees with a time of 22:43.2, inches ahead of Vivian Holden-Betts (22:43.3), with Margaret Solomon finishing in 23:20.1, ahead of Sophia Cavalieri (23:26.8).
F-M’s Grace Kaercher, pulled away from her teammates as she prevailed in 19:05.0. Grace Kaercher got second place in 19:47.6, edging Ani Sydorowich, who was third in 20:02.5. Amelia Amack was fourth (20:21.5) and Lejla Borcilo fifth in 20:59.7.
Next for both sets of Bees is a meet this Saturday against Cicero-North Syracuse at Oneida Shores.
