Running at home had to give the Baldwinsville boys cross country team some kind of advantage going into Wednesday’s inaugural Salt City Athletic Conference championship meet.
And with that familiarity on the Durgee Junior High School course, the Bees topped most of the 14-team field with 58 points. Only state Class A no. 1-ranked Fayetteville-Manlius did better.
In fact, the Hornets swept the top five in the individual standings as Geoff Howles won in 15 minutes, 43.6 seconds, but B’ville had the next two best individuals in the field.
Garrett Vannatta was one of them, the junior making it to sixth place in a time of 16:24.7, while fellow junior Adam Davis got seventh place in 16:25.1, just four-tenths of a second behind Vannatta.
A third Bees runner hit the top 10 as senior Ben Timmons finished in 16:32.4 for 10th place, while junior Joe Licamelli earned 13th place in 16:39.9.
To close out the Bees’ scoring column, junior Connor McManus finished 22nd in 17:04.4, one second ahead of Kieran Sheridan (17:05.4) in 24th place. Austin Bolton was 31st in 17:14.7 as Zach Hahn (17:25.3), Sam Kellner (17:28.0) and Colin Delaney (17:31.5) each got top-10 finishes.
The girls SCAC race also was dominated by F-M, who took team honors and had the individual champion in Phoebe White, who covered the Durgee course in a time of 17:24.6.
B’ville made its way to fourth place with 119 points, just behind West Genesee (101 points) for that third spot as junior Justus Holden-Betts made her way to seventh place among individuals in a time of 18:30.4.
Freshman Annabelle Horan finished 22nd in 19:55.4, with fellow ninth-grader Mackenzie Schmidt getting 28th place in 20:08.7. Senior Anna Demer was 33rd in 20:19.2 as junior Sarah Klein was 36th in 20:27.3. Olivia Creelman took 41st place in 20:35.9 ahead of Maya Hewitt (21:05.1), Elizabeth Fawwaz (21:15.9), Jenna Costello (21:26.7) and Patricia Conlan (21:36.0).
