Both of Baldwinsville’s cross country teams served as hosts for Saturday’s 60th annual invitational meet, where hundreds of runners on more than 40 boys and girls teams took part. And it was one of the hometown runners, junior Alec Peinkofer, that produced the best time of the entire boys event.
Peinkofer steadily pulled away from Burnt Hills’ Buddy Herkenham and the rest of the Large School field, not stopping until he had crossed the line in 15 minutes, 27.81 seconds, more than 17 seconds ahead of Herkenham.
As a whole, B’ville was fourth in the 14-team Large School division, with 130 points, as Franklin Academy (77 points) edged Burnt Hills (84 points) for the top spot and Clarence (125 points) got past the Bees for third.
Andy Fleming posted a 13th-place time of 16:21.11, while Matt Pond finished 25th in 16:40.43. Josh Perez worked his way to 34th place in 16:48.05 as Jack Martin, in 57th place (17:18.46), rounded out the scoring column.
Meanwhile, in the 26-team Small School race, Marcellus took team honors with 60 points, far clear of runner-up Tully (108 points), as Mustang junior Ryan Manahan took the individual title in 15:46.11.
Going to the girls side, B’ville was fifth among 13 Large School entrants with 132 points. Clarence, with 64 points, held off Ithaca (73) to prevail, with Fairport third and Liverpool fourth.
Junior Annie Peterson had the top individual effort for the Bees, claiming 14th place in 19:40, three spots ahead of Rachael Miller, who was 17th in 20 minutes flat. Hannah Olds was 29th in 20:29, while Julia Johnson finished 35th (20:36) and Amanda McMahon was 37th in 20:42.
Clarence’s Kaitlin McCadden won the Large School individual race in 18:28, while the Small School race went to Johnson City’s Lauren Mullins in 18:30.65. Tully, with 63 points, beat Marcellus (79 points) and 20 others for the Small Schools team title.
Three days earlier, the Bees stayed undefeated in the CNY Counties League, beating Syracuse West (the combined Corcoran/Fowler team) 16-47 on the girls side and 22-35 on the boys side.
Peterson led B’ville, posting a time of 22:09, 20 seconds ahead of Miller. Olds finished in 22:40, with McMahon fourth in 22:45. Rachel Dominic was sixth in 24:40, ahead of Kirby Socker (24:48) and Hope Murphy (25:19).
Meanwhile, in the boys race Peinkofer earned a victory in 17:08.8, with Fleming second in 17:15, ahead of Corcoran’s Eli Welling, who led his side with 17:20.
Pond got fourth place, in 17:50, while Perez worked his way to seventh place in 18:06. Caesy McCallister was eighth in 18:40 and Nate LoParco (19:51) slid into 10th place.
