In their own unique ways, Baldwinsville’s cross country teams both lay claim to the solo spots atop the CNY Counties League National division.
To earn it, the Bees had to sweep Cicero-North Syracuse Wednesday at Durgee Junior High School – which they did, the boys rolling to a 16-44 decision, the girls fighitng off the Northstars 26-30.
The boys merely confirmed that its rise to no. 4 in the state Class A rankings was not any accident, grabbing the top four spots against C-NS on its home course.
Andy Fleming and Alec Peinkofer ran close to each other, Fleming prevailing in 16 minutes, 10.55 seconds as Peinkofer (16:10.87) finished second. Jack Martin, in 16:11.87, eased his way into third place, while Josh Perez claimed fourth place (16:18.14) by a comfortable margin over C-NS’s top runner, Colin Greenseich, who was fifth in 16:24.74.
It didn’t stop there, either, as Casey McAllister ran his way to sixth place in 16:37.05, while Antonio Martinez needed 16:48.83 to earn seventh place. The Northstars occupied the rest of the top 10, but it was too late.
Two groups of runners helped B’ville pull through in the girls meet, a battle of two state-ranked sides as the Bees arrived no. 14 in Class A and C-NS claimed the no. 11 position.
Jacqlynn Halstead earned the individual title in a time of 18:24.18, but two B’ville stars were close behind her. Rachael Miller led the Bees, fighting her way to second place in 18:32.74, while Annie Peterson stayed right behind Miller and finished third in 18:33.93.
After C-NS teammates Nicole Watterud (18:43.84) and Amanda Shuman (18:53.87) rounded out the top five, the Bees made its decisive move.
Marisa Lathrop, in a clocking of 19:01.99, claimed sixth place. Further behind, Mia Bolton got eighth place in 19:24.02, with Emily Thompson (19:30.62) earning eighth place. Just to be sure, Mackenzie Ross (19:43.30) landed in 10th place.
Now both of B’ville’s teams went to Van Cortlandt Park, in the Bronx, for the annual Manhattan Invitational on Saturday afternoon, where more success awaited them.
The boys Bees won the 25-team Varsity B division, with 97 points as runner-up St. John the Baptist picked up 116 points, and once again Peinkofer set the pace. On the 2.5-mile Vand Cortlandt Park course, Peinkofer covered it in 12 minutes, 49.8 seconds, winning the race by 2.9 seconds over Tappan Zee’s Luke Gavigan.
Fleming, who made his way to 13th place in 13:19.8, offered the main support, with Martin flying to 20th place in 13:29.3 and Perez taking 22nd place in 13:32.4. McAllister rounded out the scoring column, finishing 41st in 13:51 flat as Steve Petrelli was 48th (14:00.3) and Martinez finished in 14:12.4.
B’ville’s girls team rose to second place in the Varsity E division, with 117 points, well ahead of third-place Mount St. Dominic (138 points), but well back of Suffern, who won with 58 points because it had five runners within the top 25.
By contrast, the Bees only had two in the top 25, but that included Miller, who was seventh in 15:30.7, just ahead of Peterson, who got 11th place in 15:38.6.
Bolton, in a clocking of 16:08.5, earned 26th place, while Lathrop (16:23.3) and Thompson (16:23.8) were 36th and 37th, respectively. Ross made her way to 48th place in 16:42.5, with Julia Johnson (17:18.7) further back.
