Lake Placid’s Ethan Cash, center, holds a lead over Saranac Lake’s Sage Kite-Whidden, Emmett VanBuskirk and Austin Shoemaker during a meet on Sept. 12 in Saranac Lake. (News photo — Parker O’Brien)

SARANAC LAKE — The Lake Placid cross country teams split their second meet of the season at the Dewey Mountain Recreation Center on Tuesday, Sept. 12.

The Blue Bombers competed against Saranac Lake and Northeastern Clinton. The team did not race against Moriah/Boquet Valley after competing against them earlier this season.

The Lake Placid girls edged out Northeastern Clinton 27-28 to earn its first victory of the year. In the Blue Bombers’ first meet of the season on Sept. 5, the girls had just four out of the necessary five runners to count toward team scoring. Lake Placid fell to Saranac Lake 18-43.

The Red Storm girls picked up three wins, cruising past Moriah/Boquet Valley 15-48 and besting Northeastern Clinton 16-43. Saranac Lake improved to 3-0 on the season.

On the boys side, Lake Placid defeated Northeastern Clinton 21-34, but fell to the Red Storm 22-37. Saranac Lake topped Moriah/Boquet Valley 15-50 and beat Northeastern Clinton 15-48.

Lake Placid’s Holly Erenstone competes in a meet on Sept. 12 at the Dewey Mountain Recreation Center in Saranac Lake. (News photo — Parker O’Brien)

The Blue Bombers are currently 3-3 on the season. The Red Storm kicked off the racing year with a perfect 3-0 record, marking their 26th straight regular-season victory dating back to 2021.

Saranac Lake’s girls took four of the top five spots, with Phoebe Peer coming across the finish line first with a time of 21 minutes and 33 seconds. She was followed by teammates Astacia Bruno (21:41) in second, Addie Ash (22:51) in fourth and Nelle Aaron (23:08) in fifth. Lake Placid’s Kai McKinnon placed third in a time of 22:00.

The Red Storm’s Cadence Kennedy closed out the scoring for her team with a seventh-place finish in 24:15. Holly Erenstone was the second Blue Bomber finisher placing 11th in 24:56. Harley Cohen (26:08) in 16th, Jenna Fay (26:24) in 17th and Clara Boutelle (26:52) in 18th rounded out the team’s scoring.

In a competitive boys’ race, Saranac Lake’s Jake Kollmer narrowly edged out Lake Placid’s Aidan Fay for first place in a time of 16:54. Fay finished in 16:58.

The two runners remained neck and neck for much of Tuesday’s race, with Fay holding a slight lead. But toward the end of their final lap, Kollmer passed Fay with about 500 feet left in the race to seal the win.

The Red Storm’s Sam Bickford placed third in 18:23, while the Blue Bombers’ Colin Francis was fourth in 18:29. Saranac Lake’s Sam Madden finished fifth in 19:33.

While Bickford held the third place for most of the race, Francis did his best to close in on Bickford, but fell short, coming within six seconds.

Alex Evans (19:53) and Jonah Seleni (20:00) closed out the scoring for the Red Storm with sixth and seventh-place finishes, respectively. Lake Placid’s Ethan Cash placed eighth in 20:01 and Saranac Lake’s Liam Fletcher finished in 10th in 20:16.

The Blue Bombers scoring was rounded out by Colton Kondrat (21:47) in 17th and Jim Gugliemi (23:44) in 18th. Lake Placid closed out the meet with Sean Roth (25:07) in 23rd, Jesse Carlson (25:44) in 25th, Nick O’Brien (28:19) in 28th, Robert Bowden (29:35) in 29th and Calvin Branchaud (33:02) in 34th.

The Blue Bombers are slated to host Ausable Valley, Beekmantown and Moriah/Boquet Valley on Sept. 19 at 4:30 p.m.

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Invitational

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The Lake Placid cross country team competed in the Section VII Cross Country invitational at Cadyville Recreation Park on Saturday, Sept. 9.

The Blue Bomber girls finished in sixth place with 168 points. Norwood-Norfolk won the girls race with 56 points. The Saranac Lake girls came away with a second-place finish after recording 78 points.

On the boys’ side, Lake Placid finished in seventh with 227 points. Canton took first place with 91 and Saranac Central took second with 93 points. The Red Storm finished with 94 points for third place.

McKinnon was Lake Placid’s top runner finishing in 11th place in 22:33.22. The Blue Bombers were rounded out by Erenstone (24:25.54) in 26th, Cohen (26:10.66) in 49th, Boutelle, 26:29.23 in 51st and Jenna Fay (26:43.12) in 54th.

Peru’s Maddy Welc was the overall winner finishing in 19:59.87.

The Red Storm’s Kollmer took home first place in the boys’ race. The junior runner finished in 16:55.74.

Lake Placid’s Aidan Fay finished in 10th place in 18:02.26. Francis was 22nd in 19:09.13, while Cash was 47th in 20:45.10.

Kondrat (23:05.04) took 84th for the Blue Bombers, Guglielmi (24:28.24) earned 98th, Carlson (25:11.77) placed 105th and Roth (25:57.03) was 110th.