Ever since the early 1950s, thousands of high school cross country runners has made their way to Baldwinsville for a mid-season classic.
And while the field was not quite as large as it was in 2018, plenty were on hand again last Saturday for the 68th edition of the Baldwinsville Invitational, with varsity, JV, modified and even alumni races taking place throughout the morning and afternoon on the Durgee Junior High School course.
In the boys Large School division, B’ville, buoyed by a pair of top-10 efforts, finished fifth with 126 points. Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake (Section II) won the title, followed by Fairport, Ithaca and Cicero-North Syracuse.
Individually, the Bees’ Jack Michaels needed 15 minutes, 34.5 seconds to finish sixth as Burnt Hills’ Ryan Allison won in 15:14 flat, with Colin Delaney taking ninth place in 15:52 flat.
Solomon Holden-Betts made his way to 28th place in 16:48.2, with James Cary getting 37th place in 17:02.6 as Justin Chimento needed 17:13.5 for 46th place.
Meanwhile, the B’ville girls were also in the Large School division, where it finished ninth in a 19-team field headed by C-NS, who had seven of the top 16 finishers, led by freshman Kate Putman, who won in 17:58.6.
Among the Bees chasing Putman, McKenzie Schmidt had the best effort, finishing 40th among team runners (41st overall) in 20:48.2. Margaret Solomon beat out Vivian Holden-Betts for 48th place, though both posted 21:09.9 as Anna Conklin, in 21:20.4, beat out Sage Springsteen (21:23.7) for 55th place.
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Over in the Varsity Small School divisions, Skaneateles was victorious on the boys side and Trumansburg won the girls race, with the Lakers’ Caleb Bender the boys individual champion in 15:31.5 and Chenango Forks’ Piper Reid winning the girls race in 19:04.7.
Each of B’ville’s junior varsity teams finished fifth in their respective races, with Eric Smith third in the boys JV race in 17:10.4 as Annabelle Horan did best in the girls JV race, finishing 17th in 22:09.8.
Before all this, B’ville swept both sides of last Wednesday’s meet with Nottingham by equal 15-50 margins. Solomon won the girls race in 20:56, four seconds ahead of the 21:00 flat from Sarah Fawwaz.
Conklin was third in 21:29 as Horan took fourth place (22:06) and Olivia Creelman was fifth in 22:08. Kathryn Nice, in 22:41, led the next group that included Emilee Salzman (23:15), Lily Horan (23:18) and Kerri Lewis (23:27).
For the boys Bees, it was Trevor Best proving best as he won in 17:56, clear of the 18:07 from Ryan Quinn. Zach Lewis, in 18:47, beat out Jeff Raganese (18:55) for third place as Max Naples was fifth in 19:04. Richard Howard got sixth place in 19:06, ahead of Spencer Randolph (19:08), Jacob Rinn (19:22), Stephen Meeker (19:24) and Mike Sabatino (19:35).
Yet another big race takes place on Wednesday afternoon when B’ville plays host to two powerhouses, Fayetteville-Manlius and Liverpool, as the SCAC Metro division regular-season slate wraps up. Then the Bees go to Saturday’s big McQuaid Invitational in Rochester.
