As the follow-up to its annual invitational meet on Sept. 22, each of the Baldwinsville cross country teams would go to Oneida Shores for one more big Salt City Athletic Conference Metro division race.
B’ville went head-to-head against Cicero-North Syracuse, with Henninger and Nottingham also present. And the boys Bees, holding the no. 15 state Class A ranking, beat all of them, including a tough 27-31 win over the Northstars.
Depth had to save B’ville since C-NS went 1-2 in the individual race, Nathan Poirier winning in 17 minutes, 1.8 seconds and R.J. Davis getting second place in 17:04.4.
Connor McManus, in a third-place time of 17:22 flat, led the first pack of Bees, exactly four seconds ahead of Adam Davis (17:26.0) in fourth place as Garrett Vannatta made his way to fifth place in 17:27.4.
Yet it took a second B’ville pack to overtake the Northstars as Colin Delaney made his way to seventh place in 17:42.1, just ahead of Adam Michaels in eighth place in 17:42.8. John Arvantides got ninth place in 17:58.7 as Sam Kellner (18:09.9) and Joe Licameli (18:13.8) were just outside the top 10.
In the girls race, the Bees easily handled Henninger and Nottingham, but lost 22-37 to the Northstars, who at no. 13 was two spots ahead of B’ville in the latest state Class A rankings.
The Bees had just finished second to C-NS in the Large School division of the B’ville Invitational, and this result mirrored that one, even though Justus Holden-Betts earned individual honors, winning in a time of 19:59.2.
Kate Putman, second in 20:29.7, led a pack of four Northstars that included Allison Newton (20:30.1), Marissa Navarra (20:56.9) and Maria Marullo (21:09.9) ahead of the Bees’ Olivia Creelman, who was sixth in 21:16.1.
Annabelle Horan followed, getting seventh place in 21:28.7, but another quartet of C-NS runners would beat McKenzie Schmidt, whose 12th-place time of 22:37 flat beat Maya Hewitt (22:47.6) and Vivian Holden-Betts (22:51.8).
Now the B’ville sides would go to Saturday’s McQuaid Invitational in Rochester, where the boys finished 18th in the featured Class AAA race, behind only Liverpool among boys Section III entrants.
McManus led the Bees, finishing in a time of 16:10.8, just ahead of the 16:12 flat from Adam Davis. Michaels posted 16:19.3, ahead of Arvantides (16:31.5), Delaney (16:31.8), Licameli (16:37.1) and Kellner (16:52.5).
Justus Holden-Betts was the 10th-fastest girls runner at McQuaid, her time of 17:52.1 not from the winning 16:52.2 from Liverpool’s Jenna Schulz and eighth in the AAA race.
Team-wise, the girls Bees finished 15th, seeing Creelman finish in 19:46.8 as Horan posted a time of 20:06.1, just ahead of Leah Carpenter (20:12.8) as Vivian Holden-Betts posted 20:51.9, ahead of Sage Springsteen (21:56.1) and Sarah Fawwaz (22:03.8).
With regular-season league work done, B’ville would run this Saturday in the Tully Invitational and then, on Oct. 13, go to the Manhattan Invitational at Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx before hosting the Oct. 17 SCAC championships.
