A young Baldwinsville cross country team had already absorbed plenty of lessons going up against top-level competition this fall, often on its home course at Durgee Junior High School.
Before much of that, though, the Bees ran on Sept. 7 at Verona-Verona-Sherrill’s invitational meet, gleaming knowledge about the course that it would use when it returned two months later for the Section III Class A championships.
In the first race on Saturday morning, the boys Class A runners went off, with the Bees’ duo of Jack Michaels and Colin Delaney each looking to secure spots in this weekend’s New York State Public High School Athletic Association championships at Plattsburgh.
And Michaels proved successful, enduring the cold, windy conditions to cover the 3.1-mile VVS course in 16 minutes, 43.3 seconds, which put him in eighth place.
But since team champion Fayetteville-Manlius swept the top three spots, the remaining five best individuals got put on the sectional All-Star team for the state meet.
By that criteria, Michaels, by a comfortable 9.7-second margin over Liverpool’s Jake McGowan, joined Rome Free Academy teammates Nick Ferretti and Nate Sletten, along with Liverpool’s Carter Rodriguez and West Genesee’s Matt Bartolotta, in advancing.
As for Delaney, he finished 14th in 17:15.1, part of an effort for B’ville where it climbed all the way to third place in Class A with 107 points, behind only F-M and Liverpool as RFA and Cicero-North Syracuse rounded out the top five.
Solomon Holden-Betts ran his way to 23rd place in 17:57.2, half a second ahead of James Cary, who was 24th in 17:57.7. Tom Hagopian was 38th among team runners (39th overall) in 18:24.3, with Ryan Quinn (18:37.9) two spots ahead of Justin Chemento (18:39.2) as Connor Waldron (18:52.8) and Aidan Micho (18:55.5) were close behind.
Two hours later, the girls Class A race started, with B’ville eager to grab a top-five finish – which it did, the 163 points for fifth place behind F-M, Liverpool, C-NS and RFA.
Individually, Vivian Holden-Betts paced the Bees, getting to 23rd place in 21:13 flat, while McKenzie Schmidt was 25th in 21:22.1. Anna Conklin, in 22:18.6, was just ahead of Margaret Solomon (22:19.6) and Sage Springsteen (22:37.1). Sarah Fawwaz (23:11.7), Lily Horan (23:25.9) and Annabelle Horan (23:40.0 trailed.