With a Sept. 10 victory in the Chittenango Invitational on the ledger, the Baldwinsville boys cross country team got into the win column in the CNY Counties League with last Wednesday’s 15-50 conquest of Syracuse East.
Each of the Bees’ top runners stayed in the same pack. Thus, when Evan Vannatta crossed the finish line in 17 minutes, 16 seconds, Evan Biedermann, Austin Bolton, Cameron Morrissey and Ben Timmons were all one second behind in 17:17.
It didn’t stop there, either, as Adam Davis, Sam McIlroy and Garrett Vannatta all finished in a time of 17:18. To complete this pack run, Kenny Stehle finished in 17:19 and Andrew Olds, in 17:20, rounded out a top-10 sweep.
In the girls meet, B’ville also won, 15-50, over Syracuse East, sweeping the top nine spots. Once again, Justus Holden-Betts proved the quickest individual, making her way to victory in a time of 19:27 ahead of Anna Demer, who was second in 19:44.
Sarah Klein, in third place in 19:49, wasn’t far behind Demer. Elizabeth Fawwaz got fourth place in 19:55, and Mia Bolton led the next pack, finishing fifth in 21:16. Lyndsey Slavik (21:34), Sarah Rodman (21:35), Merideth LaQue (21:47) and Leah Carpenter (24:00) rounded out the top nine.
Each of B’ville’s teams would move from here to compete in Saturday’s Kamikaze Invitational at Jordan-Elbridge, where the 2.48-mile course includes 16 hay bales to jump over, making it close to a steeplechase.
The Bees would thrive in this setting and claim both sides of the event, with the B’ville boys picking up 30 points to finish comfortably ahead of runner-up Marcellus (70 points) and 20 other teams, while earning 10 of the top 30 individual spots.
Joe Licameli led that group and nearly won the race, his time of 13:40 just behind Homer’s Grant Stokoe, who won in 13:38. Close behind Licameli, Biedermann earned third place in 13:46, with Olds getting to fourth place in 13:50.
In the next Bees’ pack, John Kresovich finished 10th, in 14:05, with Connor McManus (14:09) beating out Sam Kellner (14:10) for 11th place. Jake Naples was 20th, in 14:25, one spot ahead of Kieran Sheridan (14:26) as Renny Simone was 26th in 14:32 and Stehle finished 30th in 14:46.
Moving to the girls portion of the J-E Kamikaze Challenge, Holden-Betts roared to a time of 15:40 and won the individual race by 45 seconds over Central Square’s Eva Keohane (16:25) as B’ville, with 27 points, pulled away from second-place Waterloo (68 points) for team honors and beat 14 other sides, too.
Demer made it to third place in 16:29, with Klein grabbing fourth place in 16:38. Fawwaz had an eighth-place clocking of 17:20 as Carpenter earned 12th place in 17:37. Slavik finished 18th (17:49) and Rodman was 21st in 18:04. Natalie Farnett (26th, 18:17), Jenna Costello (30th, 18:33) and Mia Bolton (35th, 18:50) also ran well.
B’ville will host its 65th annual invitational meet this Saturday following a league race Wednesday against Syracuse West.
