BALDWINSVILLE – No event on the Baldwinsville cross country calendar is more important than its annual invitational meet, a late-September tradition that spans nearly seven decades.
The 69th edition of this early-autumn classic drew hundreds of runners to Durgee Junior High School last Saturday for competition in multiple races, from an Open race at the start to modfiied and JV events and Varsity races with Large School and Small School divisions.
Of course, the host Bees were part of the Large School races, where on the boys side Solomon Holden-Betts made his way to fourth place in 16 minutes, 21.6 seconds, not far from the winning 16:08.9 from Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake’s Matthew Rounds.
Ryan Wilson was 25th in 17:46.4, with Arthur Chappell Bauer (17:57.4) beating out Jack McAllister (17:59.4) for 32nd place as Jeff Ragonese was 35th in 18:05.7.
Overall, B’ville’s boys were fourth in the 15-team field behind Burnt Hills, Fairport and Ithaca, while on the girls side the Bees finished ninth out of 13 sides.
Sophia Cavalieri made her way to 14th place for the Bees in 21:05.8. Mary Sabatino, in 22:40.1, got 30th place, with Margaret Solomon 50th in 23:51.4 ahead of Erin Seitzer (24:44.2) and Lily Horan (25:15.7).
Cicero-North Syracuse and Pittsford both had 51 points at the top, but the Northstars had the better sixth runner by one position along with individual champion Kate Putman, who posted 18:28.9.
In the Small School divisions, Cazenovia’s girls edged New Hartford for the top spot and Camden’s boys were one point ahead of Vernon-Verona-Sherrill, 106-107. Scott Weeks and Katie Dolan were the top runners in the Alumni/Open race that started the festivities.
As if the B’ville Invitational were not enough, the week kicked off last Wednesday with a visit to Durgee from the powerful teams of Fayetteville-Manlius as part of a three-team meet with Henninger.
Each of the Bees’ sides defeated the Black Knights 15-50, but could not keep up with the Hornets, who owned the no. 2 spot in both the boys and girls state Class A rankings.
In the boys race, Jeff Ragonese had B’ville’s best showing, his time of 18:40.1 trailing six F-M runners led by Anthony Otis, who pulled away to win the individual race in 17:09.2.
Ryan Wilson gained eighth place in 18:42.7, just ahead of the ninth-palce 18:43.2 from teammate Jack McAllister. Adam Kozman was 11th in 19:16.5, with Arthur Chappell Bauer 12th (19:23.7) and Owen Weaver (19:37.6) 13th.
B’ville’s girls had to watch F-M sweep the top nine individual spots, led by Izzie Sullivan, whose 18:08.2 was nearly a full minute ahead of the 19:00.4 from Hannah Kaercher.
Sophia Cavalieri led the Bees, gaining 10th place in 22:07.9. Margaret Solomon finished 14th in 23:24.1 ahead of the 23:31.8 from teammate Clare Horan as Mary Sabatino finished in 23:32.2. Erin Seitzer (25:50.9) beat out the 25:53.4 from Lily Horan.
