For staying in the state Class A rankings all season and for having four of its runners compete in the Nov. 11 state championship meet at Wayne High School, the Baldwinsville cross country teams received an invitation to last Saturday’s New York State Federation meet.
So the Bees made their way downstate to Bowdoin Park in Wappingers Falls, where the boys would register an impressive seventh-place finish in a 28-team field, while Justus Holden-Betts nearly earned a top-10 result among individuals in a strong girls field.
Holden-Betts covered the Bowdoin Park course in 19 minutes, 3.3 seconds. That put her in 11th place, less than a second behind the 10th-place time of 19:02.5 by Sacred Heart Academy’s Maggie Maier.
Among Section III runners, only Clinton’s Eva Borton fared better, finishing fifth in 18:41.5. North Rockland’s Katelyn Tuohy, who won the state Class A meet a week earlier, won here, too, breaking the Bowdoin Park course record to prevail in 16:52.4.
Meanwhle, in the boys Federation race, the Bees finished with 245 points, just behind sixth-place Arlington (240 points) as Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake, the state Class B champions, prevailed with 80 points.
Joe Licameli had the best individual finish for B’ville, going 17:02.5 to finish 30th among team runners and 57th overall, while Garrett Vannatta was 40th among team runners in 17:15.6 and Ben Timmons was 42nd (17:16.7) in the team standings.
Behind them, Kieran Sheridan posted a time of 17:26.7, with Connor McManus finishing in 17:30.5. Adam Davis had a time of 17:40.3 and Colin Delaney finished in 18:14.5.
B’ville’s girls team was 14th in the 27-team field (Saratoga Springs edged Shenendehowa for top honors) as, behind Holden-Betts, Elizabeth Fawwaz fared best for the Bees, running to a time of 20:27.7.
Just behind Fawwaz, Annabelle Horan posted 20:28.8, with McKenzie Schmidt (20:58.9) beating out Sarah Klein (20:59.6) by less than a second. Olivia Creelman had a clocking of 21:09 flat and Maya Hewitt finished in 21:56.6.
