Mount Greylock Boys, Girls Second in Saratoga

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. -- Mount Greylock's Margo Smith and Tommy Kirby finished third and fourth, repsectively, at the Burnt Hills Invitational at Saratoga Spa State Park on Saturday, leading their teams to second-place finishes in the process.

 

The Mount Greylock girls finished with 94 points, well behind Division 1 champion Greenwich, N.Y., (31 points) but ahead of last year's D1 champ, Seton Catholic (117 points).

 

In the boys D1 race, the Mounties lost in a tie-breaker to Lake Placid. Each team finished with 71 points.

 

Smith covered the 3-mile course in 18 minutes, 23 seconds, 19 seconds behind the champion, Seton's Margarete Champagne.

 

Niku Darafshi and Ellie Williams placed 24th and 25th, respectively for Mount Greylock, which also got points from Emma Polumbo (28th) and Anya Sheldon (31st).

 

"It was another incredible time drop by Margo," Mount Greylock coach Larry Bell said. "She hung on top pack of eight for the first half of race then surged up to second with a mile left before a half-mile scrum of four trading places until the finish.

 

"It was a breakout day as a team with many PRs or season best times. The chance to race with new faces likely contributed to the girls being able to press the pace more aggressively since they didn't know where they were supposed to be in a sea of new faces, jerseys."

 

Kirby finished in 16:00, 42 seconds behind champion Dawson Bathgate of East Rochester.

 

The Mounties' other scorers were Evan Arthur (eighth), Owen Brandriss (16th), Sam Culver (19th) and Cameron Castonguay (24th).

 

In the Modified Girls division, Helen Greenfield and Hannah Locklear paced Mount Greylock to a team title.

 

Greenfield finished seventh on the 3-kilometer course in 13:10, and Locklear was right behind her in 13:11.

 

The Mounties finished with 34 points to beat Queensbury (40 points) in a 21-team field.

 

"We finally we get out from under Queensbury's shadow," Bell said. "They seemed to own this race for years and beat us handily at the Queensbury Invitational earlier this fall. Our middle school team ran fantastic times personally and as the first team up set the tone for the Mount Greylock teams to follow today."