The Springville boys cross country team opened their season in impressive fashion winning the Red Dragon Invitational small school race, their first invite win in recent memory, by four points over defending section 6 Class C champion Newfane. Springville's top runner, Brett Russell took 3rd in 17:14, closely followed by fellow junior Jared Hecht in 17:31 good for 9th place. They were followed by Mikey Evans (17th), Zach Peterman (24th), and Nate Myers (59th) for their scoring five. Ronan McDonald from Randolph began the quest to finish top 20 in the state taking the individual win in 16:53.
The large school boys race featured an early season battle between Frontier, Clarence, and one of the favorites from class B, Pioneer. Frontier used a strong 2-4 pack (scoring places 5, 10, and 11) to distance themselves from 2nd place Clarence by 28 points. Tom Appenheimer from CHSAA league in Buffalo was the overall winner in 16:08, just edging Armani Merlino from Lancaster by 3 seconds, and giving him the fastest time of the day. Sophomore Josh Peron lead the victorious Frontier team with his 3rd place finish in 16:37.
The girls large school race was won by 2017 Nike National qualifier Sydney Nowicki from Lockport, as she put 31 seconds on Christina Peppy from Maple Grove over the last mile. Christina's teammate Ava placed 3rd, as they moved up from the small schools to challenge section 6 class A defending champion West Seneca West. However even with the 2nd and 3rd place finish West proved too much with Anna Rybczysnki (4th), Allison Stainsby (6th), Sarah Mruk (9th), Emma Larkman (14th), and Madison Mariani (23rd) demonstrating their depth to win by 26 points over host Maple Grove.
In the girls small school race it was Edgewood from Ohio crashing NYS section 6 as they took both the individual win and the team title. Senior Bailey Roberts enjoyed her 1st trip to race in Bemus Point winning by 16 seconds over Kylee Odell from Clymer-Sherman-Panama. Edgewood showed impressive depth placing their entire top 5 in top 19 finishers overall to defeat section 6 class C power Newfane by 13 points.