MOUNT MARKHAM – Less than two months from now, when the Baldwinsville boys cross country teams ventures to Mount Markham for the Section III Class A championships, it will do so having already won on this course.

Serving as the season opener for many area teams, Saturday’s Mustang Invitational featured three boys and three girls races, with the Bees taking part in the third race on both sides.

And B’ville won in the boys division, earning five of the top 12 team spots and 42 points overall to hold off runner-up Auburn, who had 49 points. Liverpool, with 85 points, was a distant third.

Though Auburn went 1-2 in the individual standings with Owen Gaspar (15 minutes, 25.7 seconds) and Ryan Mahar (15:46.4), the Bees began to catch up when sophomore Liam McOmber earned fourth place in 16:34.3.

Jacob Guelli, in a clocking of 16:52.8, finished seventh, with fellow senior Wyatt Decker eighth in 16:53.4. Then B’ville got its fourth and fifth runners ahead of Auburn’s by having Logan Bolton (17:17.7), Ben Forman (17:23.9) and Doug Clark (17:30.3) all finish within the top 15 as Dominic Dottolo (17:37.2) gained 19th place.

Right after, the girls Varsity 3 race also featured a duel among B’ville, Auburn and Liverpool, with the Bees’ total of 49 points just behind the Maroons’ 40 as, again, the Warriors (54 points) settled for third place.

Here, though, there was nearly an individual title for the Bees thanks to junior Kamryn Barton, who posted a 17:54.2 on the Mount Markham course to only trail the 17:46.7 from Auburn’s Kyleen Brady.

Madelyn Donhauser ran well, too, the freshman making her way to sixth place in a time of 18:52.3, with Ella Defio getting eighth place in 19:17.1 and Yolanda Wei 10th in 19:29.9. Isabella Arria, in 20:47.8, rounded out the B’ville scoring ahead of Mariah LeGrow (21:23.0) and Makayla Fowler (21:41.9) in the top 30.

B’ville will challenge powerful Fayetteville-Manlius and West Genesee in its SCAC Metro division opener next Wednesday afternoon.