VERONA – Each of the Baldwinsville cross country teams would post strong showings at last Saturday’s Section III Class A championships at Vernon-Verona-Sherrill High School, with the trio of Kamryn Barton, Noah Covert and Ryan Wilson earning return trips.
By each finishing in the individual top five outside of the winning teams, Barton, Covert and Wilson will come back to VVS this Saturday to take part in the New York State Public High School Athletic Association championships.
Barton, contending in the Class A girls sectional race, went 19 minutes, 21.8 seconds, beating everyone in the 100-runner field except Fayetteville-Manlius standout Izzie Sullivan, who won in 19:11.3.
So Barton will lead a sectional All-Star team at the state meet that includes Liverpool’s Taylor Page and Kaitlyn Hotaling along with Auburn’s Mary Alice Pineau and Cicero-North Syracuse’s Kennedy Jones.
As for Covert, he easily qualified for the state meet by taking third among runners outside of the winning Auburn side and sixth overall with a time of 16:54 flat, while Wilson’s eighth-place clocking of 16:54.4 beat out his teammate Paul Clark (16:57.8) for that last berth.
For the sectional all-star team at the state meet, Covert and Wilson join the individual sectional champion, F-M’s Nolan McGinn, along with Liverpool’s Brady Ruediger and Central Square’s Charles Raymond.
Overall, B’ville finished second to Auburn on the team side with 56 points to the Maroons’ 32. Adam Kozman, with his time of 17:10.4, took 11th place, with Angelo Sawyers, in 17:51.8, beating out Doug Clark (17:52.1) for 21st place to round out the scoring column as Jacob Guelli was 25th in 18:01 flat.
The B’ville girls were fourth behind F-M, Liverpool and West Genesee, with Ella Difio making her way to 12th place in 20:30.7.
Further back, Sophia Cavalieri was 27th in 21:33.3, while Yolanda Wei went 22:12.1 to take 38th place. Mariah LeGrow, in 22:32.5, was just outside the top 40 as Makayla Fowler (22:46.2) and Isabella Arria (23:03.9) followed.
