Four days after they first encountered each other, Baldwinsville and West Genesee’s girls cross country teams were clashing again.
And just like the Sept. 12 Vernon-Verona-Sherrill Invitational, the Bees finished on top by a narrow margin, prevailing 28-31 over the Wildcats last Wednesday as part of a three-way meet where B’ville also swept Syracuse West 15-50.
Justus Holden-Betts led B’ville’s efforts, posting a time of 21 minutes, 3.3 seconds, just behind WG’s Maria Matkoski (21:02.5) in second place as Wildcats star Carly Benson finished first in 19:48.5.
Elizabeth Fawwaz was fourth, in 21:21.5, and starting with Anna Demer in sixth place (22:19.6), the Bees swept the rest of the top 10. Kelley Hull finished seventh, in 22:50.4, edging out Mia Bolton (22:53.8) for that spot as Leah Carpenter was ninth, in 22:58.3, and Sophie Simone (23:01.6) took 10th place.
Meanwhile, the boys meet was more lopsided in B’ville’s favor, as it swept West Genesee 20-43 and Syracuse East 15-50 by dominating the roster after the Wildcats’ David Leff won the race in 16:52.2.
The Bees’ Ryan DeLola, posting a time of 17:36.3, beat out Austin Bolton (17:38.1) for that runner-up spot. Cameron Morrissey made his way to fourth place in 17:42.6 as Adam Davis (17:49.2) gained fifth place.
Then Denis Keegan crossed the line in 18:01.2 to edge out Evan Biedermann (18:02.6) for sixth place, with Evan Vannatta getting eighth place in 18:08.5, less than a second ahead of Ethan Craig (18:09.2) in ninth place.
On Saturday, B’ville went to the Jordan-Elbridge Kamikaze Challenge, a shorter race but run over several obstacles not typical of a cross country meet. And the Bees swept to both team titles, with 33 points to pull away from Marcellus (63 points) on the boys side and with 56 points to top the host J-E Eagles (94 points) and 10 other challengers.
In the boys race, B’ville had seven of the top 15 finishers. DeLola, taking fourth place in 12:50, was part of a four-man pack where Austin Bolton was fifth (12:56), Davis took sixth (13:11) and Andrew Olds was seventh in 13:13. Keegan took 11th place in 13:31, three seconds ahead of Craig (13:34) in 12th place as Vannatta finished 14th in 13:43.
For the girls Bees, Holden-Betts went 15:34 in the girls Kamikaze Challenge, finishing second to J-E’s Abby Gugel, who won in 15:02 on her home course, but Holden-Betts was far from alone.
Fawwaz got to eighth place, in 16:40, with Mia Bolton (16:54) beating out Hull (16:58) for 14th place. Carpenter earned 17th place in 17:02 as Sophie Simone, in 17:05, got to 18th place. Makayla Spicer finished 30th in 17:57.
B’ville would have a big week ahead that included a Tuesday showdown with reigning national champions Fayetteville-Manlius and hosting its own invitational meet on Saturday.
