Just as it has done since the early 1950s, the Baldwinsville cross country teams brought a vast cross-section of top programs from Central New York and beyond to its school campus Saturday for the 65th edition of the Baldwinsville Invitational.
Not content with that history, the Bees went out and nearly swept the team titles in the Large School divisions, with the girls, led by Justus Holden-Betts, holding off West Genesee, 71 points to 76, for top honors and the boys getting 58 points to top everyone except Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake (Section II), who won with 38 points.
On her home course, Holden-Betts would pull ahead in a tight battle for individual honors with Rush-Henrietta’s Sammy Watson. In a time of 17 minutes, 51.9 seconds, Holden-Betts prevailed by 3.1 seconds as Watson finished in 17:55 flat.
Since West Genesee had the third, fifth and seventh-fastest runners in Carly Benson, Emily Young and Mia Mitchell, B’ville needed its depth to get back in front, and got it from Sarah Klein, who was 10th in 18:48.4, just ahead of Anna Demer, who took 11th place in 18:53.6.
Elizabeth Fawwaz finished 22nd among team runners in 19:46 flat, and when Leah Carpenter posted 20:02.6 to finish 27th in the team standings, B’ville got the win because Carpenter was 11 places ahead of the Wildcats’ fifth runner, Emma Farmer. Sarah Rodman, in 20:22.1, finished 34th on the team side as Lyndsay Slavik (20:45.3) was 42nd.
Right after that, the boys Large School race was run, and Cameron Morrissey led B’ville’s efforts, getting to eighth place in 15:36.2, half a minute behind the winner, West Genesee’s David Leff, who took the race in 15:06.4.
Adam Davis got to 11th place in 15:44.7, just ahead of Evan Vannatta, who was 12th in 15:48.4, and Joe Licameli, who had 13th place in 15:52.1. Even with these results, plus Ben Timmons finishing 15th in 15:52.8, Burnt Hills won because it possessed four of the top seven finishers, including Tyler Berg, Evan Brennan, Aidan Gillooley and Nick Hunziker. B’ville also had Evan Biedermann finish 17th in 15:53.7 and Austin Bolton get 21st place in the team standings in 16:06.9.
As a warm-up for the invitational, B’ville took on Syracuse West last Wednesday in a CNY Counties League race and swept it, prevailing 20-43 on the boys side and winning the girls meet by a score of 17-46.
In the girls race, Holden-Betts won in a time of 20:54, followed by Demer in second place (21;29) and Klein taking third place in 21:38.
After Syracuse West’s Jaelyn Howard got a fourth-place finish in 22:07, the Bees swept the rest of the top 10. Sarah Fawwaz took fifth place in 22:47, with Mia Bolton sixth in 23:15. Nadine Dickter got seventh place in 23:20, followed by Slavik (23:36), Meredith LaQue (23:37) and Natalie Farnett (24:02).
B’ville’s boys team had to watch Syracuse West’s Solomon Lawrence win that race in 17:24.2, but otherwise dominated the event as its top runners stayed within a close pack, essentially warming up for the invitational.
Biedermann, Vannatta and Davis all finished in a time of 18:14, with Morrissey and Sam McIlroy each posting 18:15. Timmons finished seventh in 18:16, one second ahead of Austin Bolton (18:17), with Kenneth Stehle (18:23) and Andrew Olds (18:25) close behind.
