The Bears had an exciting week, racing the second league meet of the season in Potsdam on Tuesday, then driving down to Burnt Hills in Saratoga Springs to compete in a more competitive Invitational.
On Tuesday, William Jones from Potsdam lead the race from the beginning and won on his home course in 17:54. Lucas Watts from Canton took second in 18:08, and Andrew David from Massena placed third in 18:13. Canton filled the rest of the top five; Aiden Rodriguez-Doyle placed fourth in 18:20, and Rylan Lee-Powell placed fifth in 18:28. Adam Sabatini and Daniel Armendariz-Huang placed ninth and tenth in 18:37 and 18:40. The boys easily took first with 30 points, followed by Massena with 84 and Malone with 94.
The Norwood-Norfolk girls took first place individually and as a team once more, but the rest of the section put up more of a fight this week, with Malone, Potsdam, Gouverneur, and Canton breaking up Norwood-Norfolk’s scoring team. Madison Carista placed first in 20:27, followed by her teammate Allie Snell in 21:15. Una O’Connell from Malone placed third in 22:03. Lena Frank from Canton placed ninth in 22:47, Violet Foster placed fifteenth in 24:10, and Lorelei Harper placed 17th in 25:04. Addison Ragan and Ashlan Foster placed 26th and 30th in 26:28 and 27:13, respectively. Norwood-Norfolk won in 16 points, Canton claimed second with 58 points, and Brushton-Moira placed third in 80 points.
The Canton boys returned to the Burnt Hills Invitational, where they placed third last year, with high hopes of winning. Unfortunately, the Bears, ranked sixth in the state by class, fell to Oneonta, the number three ranked team. Oneonta won the boy’s Division II race with 60 points, and Canton placed second with 111. Armendariz-Huang led the team in a time of 17:00.1, placing 12th, followed closely by three teammates: Watts, who placed 14th in 17:01.0; Lee-Powell, who placed 19th in 17:07.8; and Rodriguez-Doyle, who placed 23rd in 17:22.6. The Bear’s fifth runner was Kaden Worthley, who placed 48th in 18:17.5.
The Canton girl’s team had a strong performance, placing 7th as team with 223 points. Voorheesville was first with 60 points, and Ichabod Crane was second with 97 points. The girls placed three runners in the top fifty, Frank, who placed 19th in 21:44.3; Ori Casserly, who placed 37th in 23:00.0, and Foster, who placed 49th in 23:44.4. CJ McKinley placed 53rd for the bears in 23:59.4, and Harper placed 65th in 24:57.0.