One of the area’s oldest cross country events renewed itself again Saturday when dozens of teams descended upon Durgee Junior High School to compete in the 62nd annual Baldwinsville Invitational.
But the boys team from B’ville was not participating. Allegations of hazing led to the school district suspending team activities for all 53 runners until a full investigation is complete.
In the meantime, the meet – 13 races in all, counting boys, girls and JV contests – went on as scheduled, and B’ville’s girls team still competed in the Large School division, where it was fourth out of 12 sides with 92 points. Clarence, with 47 points, took the top spot.
As Jamesville-DeWitt’s Rachel Fairbanks won the individual race in 18:09.7, Marissa Lathrop led B’ville’s efforts, the junior finishing in 19 minutes, 18.4 seconds for seventh place.
Rachael Miller wasn’t far behind, claiming 14th place in 20:00.3, while Mia Bolton finished 24th in 20:34.4. Emily McComb gained 28th place 20:43 flat, just ahead of teammate Kelley Hull (20:49.2) in 29th place as Hannah Olds finished 33rd, in 20:59.9.
Clarence also won the Large School division on the boys side, while the Marcellus boys and Skaneateles girls claimed the team titles in the Small School divisions. Skaneateles sophomore Kaitlyn Neal had the fastest girls time of the meet when she finished in 18:02.4 as Clarence’s Dan Huben posted the best boys time of the day with 15:10.1.
Essentially, the Bees’ home meet against Syracuse East last Wednesday served as a warm-up for the Invitational, and B’ville won 15-50 on both ends.
Lathrop won a close girls race, 20:21 to Miller’s 20:23. Half a minute behind them, Bolton (20:56) won the race for third over McComb (20:58), with Hull (21:04) in fifth place. Nadine Dickter had a time of 21:33 as Natalie Farnett (22:21) and Madison Gonzalez (22:22) got to the seventh and eighth spots, respectively. Kirby Socker was 10th in 22:37.
In their last activity before the team suspension, Jack Martin and Josh Perez ran together and finished in 17:32, but let their teammates go to the front, starting with Paul Moore, who won in a time of 17:25, edging Steve Petrelli (17:26) and Arden Kellner (17:27) for that top spot.
Ryan DeLola (17:29) and Mike Boyce (17:30) completed a top-five sweep ahead of Martin and Perez. Also, Brian DeLola took eighth place, in 17:38, with Denis Keegan (17:44) and Andrew Carter (17:46) also in the top 10.
