Verona — A season full of accomplishments for Baldwinsville cross country freshman Justus Holden-Betts will culminate with an appearance at this Saturday’s New York State Public High School Athletic Association championship meet at Monroe-Woodbury.
To earn this honor, Holden-Betts had to run well on the tough Vernon-Verona-Sherrill course that played host to last Saturday’s Section III Class A championship meet, where the Bees, with 104 points, finished fourth in a 10-team field.
Since reigning state and national champion Fayetteville-Manlius dominated again, claiming eight of the top nine spots, including Kaitlyn Neal (18:07.5) beating out West Genesee’s Carly Benson (18:13.1) for top honors, it was easy, perhaps, to forget the raging battle behind the Hornet pack.
But it was there, top runners battling for the four remaining individual berths in the state meet. And Holden-Betts held her own, beating that entire pack as her time of 19 minutes, 40.7 seconds put her in 10th place overall, but second outside the F-M group.
Thus, Holden-Betts joined Benson, West Genesee teammate Maria Matkoski (20:00.6), Rome Free Academy’s Marian Draper (19:49.1) and Liverpool’s Juliana Basla (19:53.8) on the sectional All-Star side going to Monroe-Woodbury.
Another B’ville runner almost joined them, but sophomore Elizabeth Fawwaz had to settle for 14th place in 20:10.4, with only Matkoski keeping her from advancing.
Senior Kelley Hull finished 22nd, in 20:53.9, while ninth-grader Leah Carpenter (21:55.3) beat out sophomore Sarah Rodman (22:00.6) for 35th place and junior Natalie Farnett (22:06.8) finished 39th, two spots clear of junior Nadine Dickter (22:08.0) and four spots ahead of junior Mia Bolton (22:13.1), while sophomore Makayla Spicer (22:41.7) earned 50th place.
B’ville fared better in terms of its boys team, earning 96 points to rise all the way to third place, though it was far from the memorable duel out front where Liverpool, with 32 points, upended defending state and national champion F-M (36 points), and only the Warriors advanced to the team portion of the state meet.
continued — Senior Ryan Delola had the Bees’ best individual performance, claiming 12th place just under the 17-minute mark (16.59.9, to be exact), just two spots, and less than 10 seconds, away from the cutoff for advancing to the state meet.
Other B’ville runners stayed together, as freshman Austin Bolton rose to 18th place in 17:19.6, just ahead of juniors Andrew Olds (17:20.2) and Cameron Morrissey (17:23.6) in 19th and 20th, respectively.
Then senior Ethan Craig finished 27th, in17:41.2, with freshman Adam Davis 28th in 17:45.8 and junior Evan Biedermann (17:47.9) in 29th place. Senior Denis Keegan could only manage a 35th –place finish in 18:02.6, with junior Evan Vannatta 39th (18:15.0) and senior Andrew Vanslyke (18:19.7) in 42nd place.
