The Golden Bears Cross Country teams had a busy week, racing in Gouverneur on Tuesday and attending the 80th Annual EJ Herrmann Cross Country Invitational in Utica. The Gouverneur course is the hilliest in the section, but the Bears took it in their stride, dominating the competition. The Bears returned the EJ Herrmann Invite for the second year, finding the meet more competitive than last year.
In Gouverneur, Canton sophomore Bennett Schmitt placed first in the girl’s race in 21:58, and freshman Ori Casserly placed second in 22:18. Third place went to Gouverneur’s Abby Bowman in 24:01. Canton’s top five was rounded out by freshman Lena Frank, who placed sixth in 26:01, sophomore CJ McKinley, who placed seventh in 26:17, and sophomore Johanna Tupper who placed eighth in 27:55. The Canton Girl’s team was the only complete team, beating both Gouverneur and OFA.
In the boy’s race, Canton junior Aiden Rodriguez-Doyle led the Bears to their first perfect score in years, meaning Canton runners took places one through five. Rodriguez-Doyle placed first in 18:40, junior Rylan Lee-Powell placed second in 18:48, and junior Lucas Watts placed third in 18:56. Sophomore Adam Sabatini placed fourth in 19:58, and junior Kaden Worthley placed fifth in 20:09. Canton beat both Gouverneur and OFA with a perfect score of 15 points.
At the EJ Herrmann Invitational in Utica, Schmitt and Casserly had excellent races, placing second and seventh in 20:40.5 and 21:39.1, respectively. Schmitt placed ninth at this meet last year, moving up seven places. Frank placed 26th in 23:33.5, McKinley placed 51st in 25:18.7, and junior Violet Foster placed 62nd in 25:45.6. Even though Canton was missing Tupper, they still did exceptionally well, placing fourth out of thirteen teams with 112 points. First place went to Adirondack Central with 40 points, and Clinton took second with 85 points.
The boy’s team was led once again by Rodriguez-Doyle, who placed tenth in 17:50.7, followed by Watts, who placed 16th in 18:07.5. Lee-Powell placed 21st in 18:21.0, moving up 49 places and dropping almost three minutes off of his time from last year. Sabitini was seconds off of breaking 19 minutes, placing 32nd in 19:02.2, and Worthley was 55th in 19:48.5. Alden placed first out of 23 teams with 74 points, and the Canton team placed fifth with 133 points.
The Bears will race again on Tuesday, Oct. 3 in Ogdensburg, on the sectionals course.