BALDWINSVILLE – About the only thing better than having the Salt City Athletic Conference championships on its home course for the Baldwinsville boys cross country team was winning on it.
And despite the individual and team challenges it faced, Solomon Holden-Betts and the rest of the Bees were able to finish on top of the SCAC Metro division field in Wednesdsay’s league meet, while finishing second overall.
No one could catch Holden-Betts on the Durgee Junior High School 3.1-mile layout. In a swift 15 minutes, 27.4 seconds, the B’ville senior edged away from Fayetteville-Manlius’ Anthony Otis (15:35.8) and Nolan McGinn (15:40.1) to win.
Then, on the team side, B’ville utilized its depth to finish with 50 points in the SCAC Metro race to F-M’s 54. Overall, the Bees had 68 points, topped only by Auburn’s 60.
Junior Noah Covert made his way to seventh place in 16:39 flat, while senior Jeff Ragonese finished 15th in 17:05.5. Senior Jack McAllister, in 17:28.4, was in 22nd, one spot ahead of junior Ryan Wilson, whose 17:31.3 clinched the league title.
Not far behind them, Paul Clark made his way to 27th place in 17:39.5, with Jacob Guelli 30th in 17:48.5. Kyle Sheckler (17:52.9), Zach Arria (18:03.3), Logan Bolton (18:09.7), Declan Downes (18:09.8) and Arthur Bauer (18:13.0) all finished in the top 50.
In the girls SCAC meet, B’ville, led again by freshman Kamryn Barton, finished fifth in both the SCAC Metro race and overall event behind Cicero-North Syracuse, F-M, West Genesee and Liverpool.
Earning a time of 19 minutes, 20.7 seconds, Barton made her way to 11th place, just outside a top 10 headed by C-NS senior Kate Putman, who won the race in 17:30.3.
Another ninth-grader, Yolanda Wei, made her way to 25th place in 20:42.7, one spot ahead of senior teammate Mary Sabtino, who posted 20:45.6.
Sophomore Claire Horan earned 39th place in 21:32.4 as junior Brianna Grosso, 50th in 22:13.9, rounded out the scoring column ahead of senior Margaret Solomon in 63rd place (22:48.7) and junior Avamarie Davis (23::04.9), who beat out Lily Horan’s 23:10.5.
Now the work could begin for the Nov. 5 Section III Class A championships at Vernon-Verona-Sherrill, which will also host the New York State Public High School Athletic Association meet a week later.
