Back from its strong efforts at the Oct. 8 Manhattan Invitational, the Baldwinsville cross country teams would both record victories over Cicero-North Syracuse when they met head-to-head Wednesday afternoon on the Durgee Trail.
Showing why it had the no. 13 state Class A ranking, the boys Bees swept the top seven in the individual standings, and had nine of the top 10, while notching a perfect 15-50 score in its victory over the Northstars.
A close race at the front saw Adam Davis prevail, his time of 16 minutes, 46 seconds one second better than Joe Licameli, who got second place in 16:47.
Evan Biedermann got to third place in 16:53, with Austin Bolton fourth in 16:56 and Garrett Vannatta getting fifth place in 16:59. Just behind them, Cameron Morrissey was sixth in 17:01 and Andrew Olds (17:05) seventh, and even after C-NS’s Sam Barber took eighth place in 17:15, Sam McIlroy (17:17) and Evan Vannatta (17:19) followed.
The girls race was the closer of the two, with B’ville, ranked no. 20 in the state in Class A, trading places with no. 25-ranked C-NS before its depth ultimately produced a 26-31 victory.
For each of the top six spots, a Bees runner finished the same distance ahead of a Northstars counterpart, starting with Justus Holden-Betts winning the race in 19 minutes, 26 seconds, ahead of C-NS’s Annina Marullo (19:36) in second place.
In exactly 20 minutes, Sarah Klein nabbed third place ahead of the Northstars’ Sarah Davis (20:11), while Anna Demer finished fifth in 20:15 and, again, was 10 seconds clear of C-NS’s Mia Pestle (20:25).
And even when the Northstars broke this string when Emily Dembowski took seventh place in 20:32, the Bees swept the next three positions to win the meet. Leah Carpenter got eighth place, in 21:11, with Elizabeth Fawwaz (21:12) right behind her in ninth place and Sarah Rodman 10th in 21:15.
B’ville would compete Saturday in the Vernon-Verona-Sherrill Invitational and win the 12-team boys division with 41 points, well clear of host VVS, who was second with 73 points. And it was done without most of the team’s top runners.
Instead, it was McIlroy setting the pace, going to fourth place in 17:43.9 as CBA’s Dominic Morganti won in 16:50.4. George Kresovich rose to sixth place in 18:04.9 as Sam Kellner was seventh in 18:05.7. Jake Naples was 11th, in 18:11.7, with Dante Piraino (18:23.6), Renny Simone (18:24.0), Kenny Stehle (18:29.7) and Nash Augustus (18:47.1) all recording top-20 finishes.
In the girls race at VVS, B’ville finished third, with 83 points, behind C-NS (59 points) and CBA (62 points), not getting any of its runners into the top 10, though Lyndsay Slavik did get close, finishing 11th in 22:02.2.
Close behind Slavik, Nadine Dickter gained 13th place, in 22:03.5, with Anika Archer 14th in 22:04.3. Natalie Farnett gained 22nd place in 22:22.8 as Mia Bolton made her way to 25th place in 22:44.6, followed by Meredith LaQue (23:23.1), Virginia Forester (23:32.8) and Sarah Fawwaz (24:01.7).
