Each of the Baldwinsville cross country teams would welcome a large and talented field to the Durgee Junior High School course last Saturday for the 66th edition of the B’ville Invitational.
And the host Bees, led by Justus Holden-Betts, won the girls Large School division, picking up 65 points to hold off Ithaca (79 points) for the top spot as Jamesville-DeWitt finished third with 101 points.
On the 2.9-mile Durgee course she knows so well, Holden-Betts tore to a time of 18 minutes, 1.6 seconds, well clear of the field as Ithaca’s Lizzy Rayle was second in 18:18 flat.
Sarah Klein and Olivia Creelman helped pull the Bees in front, Klein taking 10th place in 19:26 flat and Creelman 11th in 19:29.1. Elizabeth Fawwaz made her way to 19th place in 20:02.6 as Anna Demer clinched the team title, finishing 24th in 20:12.1. Annabelle Horan (20:47.9) and Jenna Costello (21:19.8) also had top-50 finishes.
Meanwhile, in the boys Large School division, B’ville had 94 points, taking third place behind Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake (36 points) and Ithaca (44 points) as the Little Red’s Silas Derfel won the individual title in 15:06 flat.
Ben Timmons paced the Bees, claiming 12th place in 16:02.3. Garrett Vannatta got 15th place in 16:11 flat, with Joe Licameli earning 19th place in 16:21.6. Adam Davis finished 23rd in 16:38.4 as Austin Bolton (16:29.5) beat out Connor McManus (16:34.2) for 25th place. Kieran Sheridan finished 38th in 16:57.2.
In the Small School varsity divisions, Port Byron (boys) and CBA (girls) took team honors, with individual titles going to Trumansburg’s Evan Whittaker (15:45.0) on the boys side and CBA’s Olivia Morganti (18:35.4) on the girls side.
B’ville tuned up last Wednesday with a sweep of Syracuse West. The boys state Class A no. 13-ranked Bees had a close race at the top on the way to a 15-50 win as McManus won it in 18;33, five seconds clear of Ben Timmons (18;38) in the runner-up spot.
Davis got third place in 18:48 as Bolton finished fourth in 18:49. Licameli had a fifth-place clocking of 18:53 as Zach Hahn (18:55), Vannatta (19:01) and Sheridan (19:12) closely followed. Sam Kellner got 10th place in 19:45.
Meanwhile, the B’ville girls, with the no. 14 state Class A ranking, prevailed 15-49 over Syracuse West, sweeping the top six spots as Holden-Betts needed exactly 22 minutes to win the individual race.
Creelman was second in 22:33, with Fawwaz third in 22:57. McKenzie Schmidt was fourth in 23:14, ahead of Demer (23:23) and Horan (23:51) as Costello got eighth place in 24:04. Maya Hewitt (24:24) beat out Patricia Conlan (24:30) for 10th place and then won the JV girls race at the B’ville Invitational in 20:40.3, with Conlan third and Leah Carpenter fourth. Tim Demjanenko was fourth in the boys JV race as Anthony Delvecchio took eighth place.
