VERONA – It would not take long for the Baldwinsville boys cross country team to get an up-close glance at the mighty Fayetteville-Manlius side it would have to try and catch.
The Bees and Hornets were in the same Varsity 1 race at Friday’s season-opening Vernon-Verona-Sherrill Invitational, held on the same course where the Section III championships will take place in November.
B’ville would produce the best individual finish thanks to junior Solomon Holden-Betts, whose time of 17 minutes, 1.5 seconds was topped only by the 16:40.7 winning effort from West Genesee’s Peter McMahon.
However, it was the Bees, with 68 points, edging the Wildcats (74 points) for the runner-up spot behind F-M, whose 25 points included having every runner in the third through eighth spots, led by Anthony Otis, who posted 17:11.5.
Behind them, Ryan Quinn led B’ville’s next group, taking 13th place in 18:19.9, just ahead of Ryan Wilson, who was 15th in 18:26.9. Arthur Chappell Bauer got 17th place in 18:32.3 and Jeff Ragonese was 21st in 18:39.8, with Adam Kozman (19:03.0) beating out Jack McAllister (19:09.0) and Owen Weaver (19:20.9).
Amid a 14-team field in the Varsity 1 girls race, B’ville settled for seventh place with 208 points, well off the winning pace of 20 points set by F-M, who had seven of the top 10 individual finishers.
Among team runners, Sophia Cavalieri was 20th in 23:12.2 to lead the Bees. Mary Sabatino, in 24:16.9, beat out Margaret Solomon (24:21.3) for 39th place in the team race as Clare Horan posted 25:15.2 and Erin Seitzer finished in 26:45.6.
B’ville hosts Cicero-North Syracuse and Nottingham in Wednesday’s SCAC Metro division opener before going to Saturday’s Jordan-Elbridge Invitational.
