In a decade crammed full of state championships earned by athletes from Skaneateles, add boys cross country to that list, thanks to the talent and efforts of junior Caleb Bender.
With a strong finishing kick, Bender earned the victory at Saturday morning’s New York State Public High School Athletic Association Class C race at SUNY-Plattsburgh.
Like all the other runners at the state meet, Bender had to tackle a Plattsburgh course inundated by snow throughout the week and shortened to 2.8 miles from the usual 3.1 due to safety concerns. They also had to adjust to cold temperatures, with the thermometer in the teens and a wind chill in the single digits.
Top-seeded going into the race, Bender took the early lead, only to get caught by LaSalle Institute’s Gitch Hayes in the latter stages. With 200 meters to go, the two were nearly step for step.
But when it counted, Bender picked up his pace, tore down the final stretch and, in 14 minutes, 41.6 seconds, beat Hayes (14:46.2) by nearly five seconds.
Christian Brothers Academy finished second in the team race behind Saranac Lake and that, along with top-five runs by Bender and Adirondack’s Tyler Fauvelle, helped Section III (309 points) finish just ahead of Section (VI) in the team event. They were joined by Hannibal’s Dillon Plantz (15th), South Lewis’ Collin Stafford (44th) and Cazenovia’s Jared Smith (56th).
And Bender was not the only local runner part of a state championship effort.
West Genesee senior Matt Bartolotta, in his third state meet appearance, helped push Section III to the Class A team championship to complement the overall state title won again by Fayetteville-Manlius.
Bartolotta, in the first race of the morning, finished in 15 minutes, 10.7 seconds, less than a minute behind the winning 14:32.7 posted by Warwick Valley’s Behailu Bekele-Arcuri.
F-M had three of the top five individual finishers with Peyton Geehrer (14:35.5), Sam Otis (14:39.5) and Geoff Howles (14:50.5). Then Liverpool’s Carter Rodriguez finished seventh in 14:53.1 and Rome Free Academy’s Nick Ferretti was ninth in 14:54.5, with Ferretti’s teammate Nate Sletten, 16th in 15:04 flat and Baldwinsville’s Jack Michaels 36th in 15:18.5.
Section III dominated the state meet as a whole, with team titles going to F-M’s boys and girls, Camden (Class C girls) and Beaver River (Class D boys), plus winning five of the eight sectional team competitions to go with individual wins by Bender, Elizabeth Lucason (Camden, girls Class C) and Tully’s Brooke Rauber, who took her fourth straight state Class D crown.
