With the top runners from the girls team competing at the Manhattan Invitational, it was left to the Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake boys cross country team to defend its home turf at last Saturday’s BH-BL Invitational at Saratoga Spa State Park.
The Spartans did a fine job of that, as they swept the top three places on their way to a convincing victory in the Varsity III race. BH-BL finished with 26 points, nearly triple that of second-place Monroe-Woodbury (72 points).
They did a great job, said BH-BL boys coach Chip Button. `That was one of our best efforts ever.`
Scott Maughan and Otis Ubriaco battled for first place right to the finish line. Maughan won with a time of 15:28.4, while Ubriaco placed second in a time of 15:30.9.
`Our coach wanted us to run a race that was hard, but he also wanted us to be together at the end,` said Ubriaco.
`They’ve raced each other pretty much all year, and they feed off each other,` said Button.
Kent Harlow wasn’t far behind Maughan and Ubriaco. Harlow placed third in a time of 15:35.1, more than five seconds ahead of fourth-place runner Daniel Frank of Jamesville-DeWitt.
Sean Pezzulo (seventh place, 15:54.8) and Anthony Romeo (13th, 16:31.3) rounded out the top five for BH-BL, which has now won four invitationals.
`They’ve done a tremendous job this year,` said Button. `We won the Guilderland Invitational, we won the Baldwinsville Invitational and we had one of our best races of the season at the McQuaid Invitational (in Rochester), which we also won.`
BH-BL did leave several representatives to run in the Varsity III girls race, and they did a good job in helping the Spartans place fourth with 107 points. Kiersten Anderson (12th place, 19:36.0), Carolyn Herkenham (13th, 19:37.9) and Meagan Roecker (20th, 19:54.7) all finished in the top 20 of a field that included state powers Greenwich, Canandaigua Academy and East Meadow.
BH-BL’s top varsity girls runners competed in the Eastern States Championship division at the Manhattan Invitational at Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx. The Spartans placed fourth out of 30 teams with 168 points, while Saratoga Springs finished sixth with 184 points and Shenendehowa took eighth place with 194 points.
Sam Roecker led BH-BL with a ninth-place finish in a time of 14:39.44. Molly Pezzulo was 17th in a time of 14:54.30, while Meaghan Gregory finished 29th in a time of 15:06.33. Alyssa Drapeau (47th place, 15:35.80) and Riley Wilk (66th, 15:53.00) rounded out the Spartans’ top five.
Saratoga didn’t have a runner in the top 25, but it grouped its top five between 28th and 51st place to finish sixth in the team standings.
Sydney King led the Blue Streaks with a 28th-place finish in a time of 15:04.87. Keelin Hollowood (32nd, 15:09.58), Amanda Borroughs (33rd, 15:12.18), Cassie Goutos (40th, 15:24.77) and Michelle Riley (51st, 15:37.31) made up the rest of Saratoga’s pack.
Lizzie Predmore was Shen’s top runner with a fifth-place time of 14:29.17. Cara Janeczko also reached the top 20 with a 19th-place finish in a time of 14:56.83. Nicole Irving (45th, 15:30.49), Alex Burtnick (61st, 15:51.15) and Danika Simonson (64th, 15:52.42) rounded out the Plainsmen’s top five.
The Shen boys team also competed in the Eastern States Championship division at the Manhattan Invitational. The Plainsmen took third place with 186 points, 16 points behind runner-up Danbury, Conn. Don Bosco Prep from New Jersey won the team title with 154 points.
Shen had four runners in the top 40, but its fifth runner, Jamie Glover, was shuffled back to 103rd place in a highly-competitive field. Glover finished with a time of 13:44.08, which was less than one minute from Shen’s lead runner, Alex Leuchanka. Leuchanka finished 12th in a time of 12:47.36.
Dan Harris was 14th in a time of 12:49.41, while Mike Danaher took 26th place in a time of 13:04.50. Brian Trainor placed 31st in a time of 13:09.58 for Shen.
Saratoga’s boys team ran in the Varsity A division and placed fourth with 179 points. Sam Place led the Blue Streaks with a sixth-place performance in a time of 13:14.50.
Demetri Goutos was 16th in a time of 13:23.88, while Kyle Wegner (33rd, 13:49.53), Joe Fairley (35th, 13:53.16) and Matt Rocco (89th, 14:39.85) rounded out Saratoga’s top five.“
