Baldwinsville served as a gracious host for a heavyweight cross country event in the mid-October chill – even if it could not make a serious dent of its own.
Each of the Bees’ sides had fourth-place finishes in Wednesday’s Salt City Athletic Conference Metro division championships contested on the Durgee Junior High School course.
In the boys race, B’ville was in fourth place with 96 points, just behind third-place Cicero-North Syracuse 91 points). The state’s top-ranked Class A side was ahead of them as Fayetteville-Manlius beat Liverpool, who is no.4 in the state rankings.
Senior Adam David ran best for the Bees as he finished in 16 minutes, 50.6 seconds, good for 18th place overall and in the league standings. F-M’s Sam Otis, who won in 15:58.3, led a top-four Hornets sweep.
Colin Delaney and Jack Michaels were close behind Davis as Delaney was 23rd in the league standings and 24th overall in 17:06.4, with Michaels less than a second behind as he posted 17:07.3.
Garrett Vannatta, in a clocking of 17:11.9, was 21st in the league standings, one spot ahead of John Arvantides (17:17.9) in 22nd place. Connor McManus and Sam Kellner were further back as McManus was 25th (17:28.4) and Kellner 26th (17:30.7).
Meanwhile, the B’ville girls’fifth-place finish had to be put in context because the state’s top two-ranked Class A teams were present, with Liverpool edging F-M and avenging a regular-season defeat to the Hornets.
Fresh off a race victory in the Oct. 13 Manhattan Invitational, the Bees’ Justus Holden-Betts could not keep up with the strong Warriors and Hornets contingents.
Still, Holden-Betts finished 14th among league runners and 17th overall, counting those in the simultaneous SCAC Empire division race, in 20:01 flat as F-M’s Claire Walters won in 17:39.8.
Olivia Creelman claimed 20th place in the league standings in 20:43.9, with Annabelle Horan (21:00.6) beating out McKenzie Schmidt (21:13.2) for 25th place. Maya Hewitt was 28th in 21:38.5 as Kathryn Nice was 32nd in 21:52.7 and Sarah Fawwaz was 35th in 22:13.6.
Many of these same teams and runners would reunite Nov. 3 for the Section III Class A meet held on the same Vernon-Verona-Sherrill course that just won the rights to host the 2020 and 2022 New York State Public High School Athletic Association championships
