By breaking the 20-minute mark on a difficult course amid challenging conditions, Baldwinsville girls cross country junior Marissa Lathrop will represent the Bees at this weekend’s New York State Public High School Athletic Association Class A championship race.
Lathrop earned this honor during Saturday’s Section III Class A meet, held at Jamesville Beach Park, where B’ville, overall, tied Cicero-North Syracuse with 113 points, but settled for fifth place in a 12-team field where, again, Fayetteville-Manlius (19 points) proved dominant.
Since the deep and talented Hornets nabbed 10 of the top 19 finishing spots in the Class A field, a lot of opportunity presented itself, as the next five fastest runners outside of the Hornets would advance.
Lathrop, with a steady and relentless effort, stayed within the top of that group and crossed the finish line on the 3.1-mile Jamesville Beach course in 19 minute, 59.1 seconds.
That put her in 12th place, but fifth among the non-F-M crowd, well ahead of the next possible qualifier, Liverpool’s Maia Henry, who finished in 20:12.3.
And this means Lathrop is going to Queensbury High School for Saturday’s state Class A meet, joining the Section III All-Stars that include West Gensee’s Laura Leff, Liverpool teammates Morgan Mahoney and Abby McNamara and Cicero-North Syracuse’s Jacqlynn Halstead. The girls Class A race starts at 11:40 a.m.
Behind Lathrop at the sectional meet, B’ville junior Rachael Miller finished 23rd in 20:41.4, while freshman Mia Bolton got 24th place in 20:44.6.
Sophomore Kelley Hull was 29th, in 21:06.6, as junior Emily McComb was 37th in 21:38.7), two spots ahead of junior Hannah Olds (21:41.2) in 39th place. Natalie Farnett (22:23.7), Kirby Socker (22:34.0) and Nadine Dickter (22:47.3) were further back.
Though it never could fully recover from its early-season controversy, B’ville’s boys cross country team still managed a sixth-place finish at the sectional Class A meet, earning 176 points as F-M won here, too, edging Liverpool, 24 points to 37.
Jack Martin missed qualifying for the state meet by less than a minute, but the Bees’ senior still got to 14th place in 16:38.7. But he was B’ville’s lone top-40 finisher.
Senior Brett Delola gained 41st place in 17:53.8, with fellow senior Steve Petrelli 42nd in 17:54.3 and freshman Cameron Morrissey (17:57.5) getting to 45th place. Sophomore Ryan Delola, in 48th place in 18:10 flat, rounded out the scoring column, ahead of Joe Frink (18:21.2) and Brennan LaQue (18:39.1).
