Amid one of the largest fields it would face all season, the Marcellus boys cross country team emerged victorious during Saturday’s 62nd annual Baldwinsville Invitational at Durgee Junior High School.
In all, 28 teams took part in the Small School division, and the Mustangs proved the best, earning 136 points to hold off runner-up Chenango Forks (174 points), while Chittenango, with 190 points, edged out Mexico (191 points) for the third spot.
Pat McGuane led the way for Marcellus, posting a fourth-place time of 16 minutes, 26.5 seconds, not far from the winner, Mexico’s Jacob Zedack, who finished in 15:54.7. Solvay’s Eric Goodrich took 11th place in 16:57.9.
To help McGuane, Alex Stopen made his way to 19th place in 17:13.6. Alex Zamojski gained 28th place in 17:34.2, while Steve Larison was 40th in 17:55.4. Kevin Pierce’s 52nd-place time of 18:16.7 clinched the title as Matt Strempel (18:17.8) and Mike Brown (18:18.2) were close behind.
Solvay did not have an official team placement, but Goodrich ran well, as did Isaiah Lee, who finished 37th in 17:53.4.
In the girls Small School race at B’ville, Marcellus finished fifth out of 25 entrants with 183 points, while Jordan-Elbridge was eighth (232 points) as Skaneateles (66 points) went to the top spot.
Rachel Garn found herself chasing Skaneateles sophomore Kaitlyn Neal. Garn finished in 18:24.8, putting her in second place as Neal, in 18:02.4, had the fastest girls time of the entire meet.
Eliza Bell aided the Mustangs, finishing 29th in 20:14.8, while Dominique Weeks was 37th in 20:40.6. Emily Townsend (21:38.7) and Brianna Szczech (22:01.0) were 61st and 68th, respectively.
On J-E’s side, Abby Gugel did not run, but Antonia Malvaso did and made her way to 34th place in a clocking of 20:37 flat. Miranda Malvaso was 47th, in 21:01.7, while Mary Elizabeth Driscoll was 54th (21:24.6) and Emily Kuehnle was 64th in 21:49.1.
