Both of Baldwinsville’s cross country teams handled the challenge at Utica Proctor in Wednesday’s meet, the boys winning 22-43 over the Raiders and the girls Bees prevailing by a margin of 15-50.
On the course at Proctor Park, Andy Fleming and Alec Peinkofer ran together in the boys race. Fleming prevailed, but both crossed the line in 17 minutes, six seconds, seven seconds ahead of the Raiders’ Yaya Adam.
Josh Perez worked his way to fourth place, in 17:36. After Proctor teammates Zakaria Adam (17:51) and Mohamad Adam (17:52) took fifth and sixth, respectively, Matt Pond led the rest of the Bees as he finished seventh in 17:54. Pat Colligan was eighth, in 18:06, with Corey McCallister ninth (18:27) and Antonio Martinez 10th in 18:44.
In a close race for the girls title, Rachael Miller won in 20 minutes, 52 seconds, edging teammate Annie Peterson (20:54) by two seconds, part of a total B’ville sweep of the top spots.
Kim Cushman was third, in 21:36, while Amanda McMahon took fourth place in 21:45. Julia Johnson, in 21:50, led another wave that included Maizy Ludden (22:15) and Emily McComb (22:17), while Kirby Socker was 10th in 22:30.
Like so many other top teams from the area, B’ville ventured down for Sunday’s Manhattan Invitational, held at Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx.
And Peinkofer would nearly get to the top spot in the Varsity B race, as he covered the 2.5-mile (shorter than the normal 3.1 mile distance) layout at Van Cortlandt in 13:08.97, claiming third place. Mike Marsella (Chariho) won in 12:43.47.
Fleming rose to 10th place, in 13:31.77, with Perez notching a 19th-place effort in 13:44.11. Pond worked his way to 33rd place (14:10.48) as Jack Martin was 58th (14:40.28), followed by Nate Wicks in 67th place (14:51.76) and Colligan (14:55.92) in 72nd.
Miller, like Peinkofer, would finish near the top at Manhattan. In the Varstiy B girls race, Miller posted a time of 16:14 flat and was fifth as Talia Guevara (Miller Place) won the event in 15:29.9.
Also, Peterson matched Fleming with a 10th-place finish in 16:41.0, while Hannah Olds was 40th in 17:30.3. Johnson (17:31.8) and McMahon (17:33.3) were 43rd and 44th, respectively, with Cushman 54th in 17:47.6 and Emily Thompson 60th in 17:53.9.
