Burnt Hills Invitational: Saratoga Springs, NY
This weekend at Saratoga State Park, the Burnt Hills Invitational was in full swing for the 35th time. This year we saw tiebreaking races, over 100 teams in competition and a new meet record.
The modified races started us off for the day where we saw the Monroe-Woodbury team win big in the boys' race and the Mount Greylock team from Massachusetts take the girls' race. The top boy was James Catania, an 8th grader from Saranac Lake, in a time of 11:18 and the top girl was Hazel Scullin, an 8th grader from Mount Greylock, in a time of 12:34.
The Freshman Girls' race was won by freshman Sarah Umphlett from Mount Anthony, with a time of 12:03, edging out 2nd place, 7th grader Emily Berg of Burnt Hills, by just under 24 seconds. The Shaker team won the race by 4 points over Bethlehem with 40 points. Julia Barker was Shaker's top runner and placed 3rd overall, beating Bethlehem's top runner, who placed 4th, Katie Grossman. Emily Berg was the top scorer of the race and led the Burnt Hills team to a 3rd place finish with 60 points.
The Boys' Freshman race was also won by the Shaker team, TJ Randall leading his team to that victory with a nice second place finish with a time of 10:13. Randall broke up a top three sweep by the Burnt Hills team as Dante Ubriaco and Kevin Board or Burnt Hills took 3rd and 4th respectively and David Metacarpa won the race with a new meet record time of 10:04.56. Metacarpa took down his teammate Evan Brennan's record set last year at 10:04.92. Board, Ubriaco and Metacarpa took their team to a 2nd place finish with 50 points, beating 3rd place Monroe Woodbury by 12.
The Boys JV B race was won by Michael Messere with a time of 17:36. He led the Burnt Hills team to it's first team victory of the day with a total of 35 points to second place Ballston Spa's 68. Ballston Spa's top runner was Julius Breindl in 6th place. Similarly to the freshman race, the Burnt Hills boys took 3rd and 4th in the race as well, with finishes from Sean Stewart in 18:10 and Josh Jones in 18:36. It was Felix Correa of Albany High School that split up the Burnt Hills team by placing 2nd with a time of 17:47.
The Girls' JV race was won individually by freshman Sophia Hurry of Niskayuna with a time of 19:54. Her teammate Abigail Thomas took 2nd right behind her in 19:55. The Champlain Valley (CVU) team took the team win with 30 points to Niskayuna's 57. The CVU team was led by 3rd, 4th, and 5th place finishes by Emma Strack in 20:03, Julie Sulva in 20:22, and Sadie Holmes in 20:32.
The JV Boys' A race was won by another Burnt Hills face, junior Logan Short, with a time of 17:04. The Burnt Hills team took home the team win here too with a low 38 points to CVU's 70. Burnt Hills' Ryan Leach placed 3rd, edging out CVU's top runner, Dylan Gooley, in 4th. 2nd place was taken by Providence Kang from Niskayuna, leading his team to a 5th place finish, and the top 5 was rounded out by Niskayuna's Michael McCallig.
The first varsity race of the day was the girls' Division 1, small schools, and it was won by Greenwich Central's freshman Brynn Wright with a time of 18:28. Wright was closely followed by her teammate Emma Cronin in 2nd place. 3rd place was claimed by Monica Strain of Maple Hill in 18:56. Wright and Cronin helped their team to a 1st place finish with 38 points over Mount Greylock's 100 point second place finish. Mount Greylock's top finisher was Margo Smith in 9th place.
Greenwich Central saw similar success on the boys' side of competition in the Division 1 Varsity race as Senior Colin Beasor won his race in 15:53, being the only one to go sub 16 in that race. Beasor helped his team to a 9th place finish out of a field of 25 teams. The Mount Greylock team was victorious with 57 points to 2nd place Lake Placid's 102. The top Mount Greylock runner was Evan Arthur in 3rd with a time of 16:24. 2nd place overall was Seton Catholic junior Caleb Moore; Seton Catholic ended up 8th after losing by a tie-breaker to Ausable Valley. Lake Pacid's 2nd place finish was led by a 8th and 9th place finish by Henry McGrew in 16:36 and Scott Shultz in 16:44.
The next race was the Girls' Division 2, medium schools, Varsity race. The Saranac team won with 140 points over Canton with 151. Rachel Woodruff was Saranac's top finisher, placing 4th overall with a time of 19:19. In 3rd place was Schuylerville's Ashley Watson in 18:58, and then Canton's top finisher, Grace Bessette, was 2nd in a time of 18:49. Julia Wilcox got the W with a time of 18:44, and led her team to an 8th place finish. The top five of this race was completed by Brittany Shumway of Saranac Lake with a time of 19:39.
The Boys' Division 2 Varsity race was won by Chris Hughes of Glens Falls, run all by himself to a 15:35 victory. Hughes also led his team to a 1st place title, wining with 53 points to 2nd place Saranac Lake's 120. Anderson Grey was Saranac Lake's top finish placing 6th with a time of 16:36. Alex Foyt of Albany Academy placed 2nd individually with a time of 16:12, having teammate Max Tulchinsky place behind him in 5th place in 16:29. Senior Joel Graska of Corinth claimed 3rd place for his own in 16:19 and Evan Ensslin, in 16:23, was 4th.
The final girls' race was the Girls' Division 3, large schools, Varsity race. Sammy Watson of Rush Henrietta won a close race with Burnt Hills' Eva Scott, and placed 1st with a time of 17:49. Scott was 2nd in 17:53, and CVU's Sophia Gorman took 3rd in 17:54. Gorman led her team to victory with 62 points over Niskayuna's 84 for 2nd place. Niskayuna's top runner was Abigail Spiers, 18:17, in 5th place, after a close race with Sachem East's Lindsey Dodenhoff, who placed 4th in 18:16. Watson's and Scott's teams saw a very close race but Eva Scott's Burnt Hills squad beat out the Rush Henrietta team with a tie-breaking finish.
As the final race of the day, the Boys' Division 3, large schools, Varsity race was won by CVU's Tyler Marshall in 15:18. Marshall's team took 3rd in this race with 105 points behind Burnt Hills and Niskayuna. After Tyler Marshall's finish, Burnt Hills put in two runners fast in 2nd and 3rd from Tyler Berg with 15:33 and Evan Brennan with 15:38. Niskayuna's team was led by Colin Ross in 5th place with a time of 15:44. In 4th place was Brockport's Erik Lacourt, also in 15:44. The Niskayuna team edged out CVU for 2nd with a close 103 points, but the team win went to Burnt Hills with a final score of 57 points.
The merge saw the CVU girls' team as the best of the day, with Sammy Watson, Eva Scott and Sophia Gorman posting the fastest times of the day. The Niskayuna team was 2nd and the Sachem East team was 3rd. On the boys' side, the Burnt Hills team was the best team of the meet, but CVU edged out Niskayuna for 2nd place this time with 125 points to Nisky's 126. The fastest 3 boys were Tyler Marshall, Tyler Berg and Chris Hughes. We saw gold elite standard performances by Sammy Watson, Eva Scott and Sophia Gorman, and silver elite standard performances from Lindsey Dudenhoff, Abigail Spiers, and Tyler Marshall.