Lake Placid’s Jim Guglielmi, front, and Doug Guglielmi compete in the cross country race at the Dewey Mountain Recreation Center in Saranac Lake on Tuesday, Sept. 9. (News photo — Parker O’Brien)

SARANAC LAKE — After competing in an invitational this past weekend, two area high school teams officially kicked off the cross country regular season on Tuesday, Sept. 9 at the Dewey Mountain Recreation Center.

Saranac Lake hosted Lake Placid, the Plattsburgh Hornets and the Beekmantown Eagles for the opening meet of the season.

After coming away with an invitational win on Saturday, the Red Storm girls looked solid once again as they had nine runners place inside the top-15 to sweep the meet. Saranac Lake’s girls earned a 17-46 victory over Plattsburgh, a 20-40 win over Beekmantown and a 15-50 win over the Blue Bombers.

However, for the Lake Placid girls, who finished last season as the Class D state runner-ups, they only had four of the needed five runners to score team points. Despite this, the girls turned in some solid individual results from Leila Fey and Norah Francis.

On the boys side, Saranac Lake picked up wins over Plattsburgh and Lake Placid, by scores of 25-32 and 22-33, respectively, but lost to Beekmantown 21-39. The Blue Bomber boys also fell to the Eagles, by a score of 16-47. They didn’t race against the Hornets on Tuesday, but will later in the season.

Lake Placid’s Norah Francis competes in Tuesday’s cross country race at the Dewey Mountain Recreation Center in Saranac Lake. (News photo — Parker O’Brien)

Fey, an eighth-grader and the reigning Section VII, Class D individual champion, won the girls race in 19 minutes, 15 seconds. Shortly behind was her fellow eighth-grade teammate, Francis, who crossed the finish line in 20:48. Saranac Lake’s Meadow Nashett, also an eighth-grader, placed third in 20:50 and freshman Nora Daley (20:50) was fourth. The top five was closed out by Beekmantown’s Olivia Drowne (20:53), who placed fifth overall.

The Eagles’ Nolan Laidman (16:48) and Chris Lincourt (17:43) were the first two boys to cross the finish line in their race, placing first and second, respectively. Saranac Lake’s Emmett VanBuskirk took third place in 17:52, and teammate Keaton Daley was fourth in 17:58.

Beekmantown’s Loghan Strickland (18:32) rounded out the top five. Meanwhile, Connor Mannion led the Blue Bomber boys with an eighth-place finish in 18:42.

Up next, the Lake Placid and Saranac Lake cross country teams will compete at Fort Ticonderoga at 4:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 16. Following that, they will once again meet, this time at Mount Van Hoevenberg at 4:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 23.

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Top-15 results:

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Boys

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1. Laidman (BCS), 16:48; 2. Lincourt (BCS), 17:43; 3. Emmett VanBuskirk (SL), 17:52; 4. Keaton Daley (SL), 17:58; 5. Strickland (BCS), 18:32; 6. Trombley (BCS), 18:35; 7. Burke (PHS), 18:37; 8. Connor Mannion (LP), 18:42; 9. Carter (BCS), 19:02; 10. Carter-Kelley (PHS), 19:03; 11. Miller-Whippin (BCS), 19:16; 12. Cipriano (PHS), 19:19; 13. Rowan Popp (SL), 19:25; 14. Hoffman (BCS), 19:25; 15. Colin Glascock (SL), 19:26.

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Girls

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1. Leila Fey (LP), 19:15; 2. Norah Francis (LP), 20:48; 3. Meadow Nashett (SL), 20:50; 4. Nora Daley (SL), 20:50; 5. Drowne (BCS), 20:53; 6. Clementine Guenette (SL), 21:04; 7. McLean (PHS), 21:06; 8. Marro (BCS), 21:22; 9. Pepper Laxson (SL), 21:28; 10. Cadence Kennedy (SL), 21:37; 11. Asa Bruno (SL), 21:49; 12. Provost (BCS), 22:14; 13. FinnLee Orapallo (SL), 22:19; 14. Lila Zobel (SL), 22:46; 15. Gwen Haney (SL), 22:59.

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Spartan Running Festival

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The Red Storm girls raced to overall team victory at the Spartan Running Festival in Cadyville on Saturday, Sept. 6.

Saranac Lake’s girls recorded 38 team points, topping Norwood-Norfolk, which had 47 points and the host Saranac Central Spartans, which scored 50, placed third in an event that featured more than 175 high school runners. The Lake Placid girls competed but did not score points because they only had four runners.

Meanwhile, the Saranac Lake boys finished in sixth place in their race with 141 points, while the Blue Bomber boys placed ninth with 210. Saranac Central won the event with 64 points.

The Red Storm girls were led by Nora Daley, who placed sixth overall in 21 minutes, 25.07 seconds. Teammates Pepper Laxson placed ninth in 21:33.60 and Cadence Kennedy was 10th in 21:37.54.

Saranac Lake also had strong finishes and scores from its seniors, Asa Bruno (21:48.88) and Clementine Guenette (21:53.83), who crossed in 12th and 15th place, respectively.

While the Lake Placid girls didn’t have enough runners to score points, they did post solid individual results. Fey finished in second place overall in 19:53.69, trailing only Saranac Central’s Sienna Boulds (19:25.82). Fellow Blue Bombers’ Francis placed fifth in 21:19.01.

Lake Placid’s girls closed out the meet with Holly Erenstone (24:30.29) earning 36th place and Rose Wenzler (28:19.36) crossing in 63rd.

Saranac Lake also had three other runners crack the top-20 as Gwen Haney (22:25.29) finished in 17th place, Lila Zobel (22:31.14) was 18th and FinnLee Orapallo (22:34.65) earned 19th.

The Red Storm were rounded out by Eloise Zobel (24:08.70) in 33rd; Lauryn Caldwell (25:01.27) in 39th; Amelia Evans (25:13.10) in 42nd; Lizzie Harvey (25:54.09) in 43rd; Rachel Rozon (27:07.66) in 55th; Elle Russo (27:09.74) in 56th; Abilene Varner (27:15.31) in 57th; and Emily Bartiss (27:17.56) in 58th.

Emmett VanBuskirk paced the Saranac Lake boys with an 11th-place finish in 17:59.76. Teammate Keton Daley was 13th overall in 18:02.79.

The Red Storm boys also had strong finishes from their final three scorers as Colin Glascock (19:37.36) placed 31st, Rowan Popp (20:00.47) earned 41st and Jonah Seleni (20:29.10) was 52nd.

Lake Placid’s sophomore duo of Graham Scull (19:33.22) and Connor Mannion (19:35.26) finished inside the top-30. Scull placed 28th, while Mannion was 29th.

Jim Guglielmi (20:21.66) and Doug Guglielmi (20:30.79) were the next Blue Bombers runners to cross the finish line, placing 50th and 54th, respectively. Jesse Carlson (20:47.27) closed out the scoring in 61st place.

Lake Placid also had finishes from Will Preece (21:16.34) in 68th, Tyler Erenstone (21:42.46) in 70th and Asher Murray (25:16.57) in 88th.

Saranac Lake was rounded out by Gabriel Kidder (20:32.94) in 56th place; Benjamin Ziemann (20:46.85) in 60th; Gregor Weinrick (20:59.20) in 65th; Everest Wolford (22:16.13) in 75th; and Matthew Hunter (23:38.13) in 83rd.

Potsdam’s William Jones was the first boys runner to cross the finish line. He finished in 17:08.76, while Peru’s Michael Welc (17:11.42) was second and Saranac Central’s Noah Thayer (17:18.50) was third.