Another eventful season is in store for each of Baldwinsville’s cross country teams, including a string of big weekend meets to the competition in the new Salt City Athletic Conference Metro division, capped by hosting that new league’s championship meet in October.
B’ville would thrive at home during last Wednesday’s season-opening meet against Cicero-North Syracuse, claiming both races as the Bees prevailed 20-35 on the boys side and topped the Northstars 23-36 on the girls side.
It was a top-four sweep for B’ville in a closely fought boys race, led by Garrett Vannatta, who in a time of 17:01 edged Adam Davis (17:03) by two seconds and Ben Timmons (17:04) by three seconds, with Connor McManus fourth in 17:06 just ahead of C-NS’s David Ware (17:08) and Nathan Poirier (17:09).
In fact, C-NS also had the seventh and eighth-place finishers in Brandon Martin (17:14) and John Perperian (17:15), ahead of Sam Barber (17:21) in ninth place. Not until Austin Bolton crossed in 17:31 did the Bees complete its team score, but the success at the top held up.
For the B’ville girls, Justus Holden-Betts won the race in 19:11, nearly a minute ahead of C-NS teammates Mia Pestle (20:03) and Sarah Davis (20:40), who were second and third, respectively.
But the real surge started with freshman Olivia Creelman’s fourth-place time of 20:48. Elizabeth Fawwaz, in 20:51, was just behind Creelman, while Anna Demer in 21 minutes flat, beat out Sarah Klein (21:01) for sixth place. Annabelle Horan (21:54) and Makayla Spicer (21:56) also had top-10 efforts.
From here, B’ville moved on to Saturday’s Vernon-Verona-Sherrill Invitational, run on the same venue as the Section III championships in early November. Competing in Race 2, the boys Bees won again, with 35 points to pull away from runner-up West Genesee, who had 58 points. Central Square was third with 93 points.
Individually, Davis took third place in 17:07.8, trailing only WG’s Sean Byrnes (17:07.6) and Homer’s Grant Stokoe, who won in 17:05.1. And though the Wildcats’ Matt Bartlotta was fourth (17:09.4), B’ville got four more runners past the finish line before WG’s third runner did so.
Vannatta made his way to fifth place, posting 17:23.6. Timmons got seventh place in 17:26.2 as Joe Licameli earned ninth place in 17:42.7. McManus landed in 11th place with his time of 17:46.5 as Kieran Sheridan (18:01.3), Bolton (18:09.5), Colin Delaney (18:25.8), Zach Hahn (18:34.7) and Sam Kellner (18:41.9) all finished within the top 25.
The results in girls Race 2 at VVS reversed the boys finish, with B’ville taking second place with 50 points, just behind West Genesee’s winning total of 41 points. Holden-Betts led the effort as her time of 19:13.9 was second to Clinton’s Eva Borton, who prevailed in 19:01.7.
Creelman impressed with an eighth-place finish in 20:53.5, good for seventh-place team points. Fawwaz got 15th place in 21:27.4, with Demer (21:35.1) holding off McKenzie Schmidt (21:36.0) for 17th place. Horan was 26th in 22:08.4 and Maya Hewitt was 28th in 22:32.3.
Ironically, B’ville and West Genesee have a rematch Wednesday at the Durgee Cross Country trail, with Syracuse East also participating. Then both of the Bees’ sides go to the Wayne Invitational Saturday on the course where the Nov. 11 New York State Public High School Athletic Association championship meet takes place.
