As they do each October, the Baldwinsville cross country teams would head to New York City- or more specifically, Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx – to take part in the annual Manhattan Invitational.
Against top teams from across the Northesatern United States, the Bees would flourish, getting third place in the boys Varsity D race and fourth in the girls Varsity C race.
Justus Holden-Betts beat most of the field for the B’ville girls. On the 2.5-mile Van Cortlandt Park course, Holden-Betts tore to a time of 14 minutes, 56.1 seconds, holding off North Penn’s Ariana Garidzy for second place.
Team-wise, state Class A no. 13-ranked B’ville had 147 points, just behind Smithtown (136 points) and Tatnall (134 points) as John Jay-Cross River won with 70 points.
Behind Holden-Betts, the Bees had McKenzie Schmidt take 27th place in 16:20.5, with fellow freshman Annabelle Horan 33rd in 16:32.4. Anna Demer was 39th in 16:41 flat as Elizabeth Fawwaz needed 16:50.5 to finish 46th ahead of Sarah Klein (16:55.0) in 50th place and Olivia Creelman (17:28.1) in 80th place.
But they all trailed North Rockland’s Katelyn Tuohy, who in an astonishing effort set the female course record while winning the race in 13:21.8, earning the fastest-ever speed rating (166) for a 4,000-meter event.
The B’ville boys, who also sit at no. 13 in its state Class A rankings, only trailed Cornwall and St. John’s Prep in the Varsity D race and were led by Garrett Vannatta, who finished 14th with a time of 13:30.8.
Joe Licameli was 20th in 13:38.5, three spots ahead of Ben Timmons, who was 23rd in 13:42 flat. Kieran Sheridan made his way to 37th place in 13:53.8 as Adam Davis (13:57.6) beat out Connor McManus (14:01.1) for 46th place. Austin Bolton was 62nd in 14:13.6.
B’ville is the host side for this Wednesday’s Salt City Athletic Conference championship meet.
