From left, Lake Placid girls cross country team members Erin Roth, Kai McKinnon, Harley Cohen, Lilly Rother, Holly Erenstone, Mya Marshall and Jenna Fay pose with the Section VII banner at the Cobble Hill Golf Course in Elizabethtown on Nov. 4. (News photo — Parker O’Brien)

ELIZABETHTOWN — Lake Placid’s Lilly Rother said she was surprised when she won the Champlain Valley Athletic Conference championship girls’ cross country individual title a week ago. But on Friday, Nov. 4 she said it was her goal to take first place overall at the Section VII state qualifier meet at Cobble Hill Golf Course, in Elizabethtown.

Not only did Rother achieve her goal by finishing in first place overall in 18 minutes, 31 seconds, but her team followed suit and claimed the Class D sectional title on Nov. 4.

The Blue Bomber girls had five of the top 10 individual spots, winning the team scoring with 25 points, while the Ticonderoga Sentinels had 30. Moriah/Boquet Valley didn’t have enough runners to compete in the team scoring.

Meanwhile, the Lake Placid boys took second place in a close contest on Friday. Ticonderoga won the Class D boys race with 33 points, while Lake Placid had 38 and Moriah/Boquet Valley took third with 61. Seton Catholic didn’t have enough runners to compete in the team scoring.

After Rother took first place in the Class D girls’ race, Ticonderoga’s Avery Blanchard took second in 19:20.2. Blanchard was followed by Lake Placid’s Kai McKinnon (20:24.3) in third place and Harley Cohen (20:50.0) in fifth.

Lake Placid’s Kenny Lawrence competes in the Section VII championship race at the Cobble Hill Golf Course in Elizabethtown on Nov. 4. (News photo — Parker O’Brien)

“We all did what we could and we were all where we were supposed to be and we all ran very well today,” Cohen said.

The Blue Bombers were rounded out by Holly Erenstone (22:13.4) in eighth place, Jenna Fay (22:22.0) in ninth, Mya Marshall (25:09.2) in 11th and Erin Roth (31:40.7) in 13th.

With the sectional title, all seven of the Lake Placid girls’ runners qualified for the 2022 NYSPHSAA Cross Country Championships at Vernon-Verona-Sherrill High School on Nov. 12.

“I’m very excited. I did not think we were going to make it,” McKinnon said.

The win also marked the fourth straight sectional title for the Lake Placid girls’ cross country program.

“Mel knows how to lead us in the right direction,” Cohen said. “It’s been really fun to see the team grow a lot this year, we weren’t quite at the level that we were at last year but we still have a fighting chance and we are working really well together and not letting anything get in the way.”

On the boys’ side, Lake Placid’s Andrew Scanio won the Class D boys’ race with a time of 15:47.8, marking the second year in a row that he has won the individual crown. His efforts were also good enough to finish third place overall, with Saranac Lake’s Sam Ash (15:23.6) and Jake Kollmer (15:38.0) being the only two runners ahead of him.

“I definitely went out a lot faster than I thought I was going to,” Scanio said. “I guess I was trying to pace off where those Saranac Lake guys were up in the front but I don’t think I paced the race as well as I wanted to, but I still ended up pushing through and succeeding again.”

Shortly after Scanio finished, fellow teammate Aidan Fay crossed the finish line for second place in Class D and fourth place overall. Fay finished in a time of 15:57.4. The Blue Bombers duo of Fay and Scanio will be the lone Lake Placid boys competing at the state meet.

“I’m pretty happy with how I paced it. I tried to go out a little easier and kind of gain my placing up the hill,” Fay said. “I didn’t quite get to the Saranac Lake guys like I wanted but I kind of reeled them in. But I kind of lost it a little bit, but I’m still happy with how it went.”

Seton Catholic’s Sam DeJordy took third place in 16:13.2, Ticonderoga’s Garrett Beebe was fourth in 16:13.2 and Seton Catholic’s Maxwell Grafstein took fifth in 16:35.5 to round out the top five in the Class D boys’ race.

The Blue Bombers’ Colin Francis finished inside the top 10. Francis took eighth place in 18:21.8. Lake Placid was rounded out by Colton Kondrat (19:38.8) in 14th place, Ethan Cash (20:01.2) in 15th, Kenny Lawrence (20:32.1) in 16th and Sean Roth (22:49.7) in 18th.