Four Baldwinsville cross country runners would brave the season’s coldest temperatures and other adverse conditions (snow, lots of mud) to compete in the New York State Public High School Athletic Association championships at Wayne High School.
Joe Licameli, Garrett Vannatta and Connor McManus were on the boys Section III All-Star squad for the Class A state race, with Justus Holden-Betts part of the same team on the girls side in Class A.
Yet it was Holden-Betts who would bring home state championship hardware as she, along with her Section III mates, pulled away for the title with 127 points to runner-up Section VI’s total of 271 points.
It helped, of course, that Fayetteville-Manlius was on hand, earning its 12th consecutive state Class A team title and placing four runners (Claire Walters, Rebecca Walters, Sophie Ryan and Phoebe White) within the top six.
Just behind them, though, were most of the sectional All-Stars, including Holden-Betts as the B’ville sophomore made her way to 15th place in 20 minutes, 10.7 seconds.
Liverpool saw its trio of Jenna Schulz (19:33.8), Madison Neuner (19:45.1) and Natalie Kurz (20:40.6) all finish within the top 30, while West Genesee’s Carly Benson was 37th in 21:04.7.
This followed a boys Class A state race where the B’ville trio would push Section III to a fifth-place team finish with 394 points as Section II (293 points) took the top honors.
Licameli had the best showing as he posted a time of 17:33.5 for 55th place. Vannatta just beat the 18-minute mark and got 81st place in 17:58.8, seconds ahead of McManus (18:03.5) in 86th place.
As to the other sectional All-Stars, Liverpool’s Nathan Reeves got to 48th place in 17:27.2, just 6.3 seconds ahead of Licameli, with West Genesee’s Matt Bartolotta finishing in 18:08.6 and in 90th place.
