From left are head coach Mel Frazer, Leila Fey, Maya Garrison, Norah Francis, Kai McKinnon, Holly Erenstone, Jenna Fay, Rose Wenzler and assistant coach Hailey Fremante. The Lake Placid girls cross country team won the Champlain Valley Athletic Conference title for the first time since 2021. (Provided photo — Alicia Brandes)

LAKE PLACID — The Lake Placid girls cross country team ran to a Champlain Valley Athletic Conference championship on Saturday, Nov. 2 at Northeastern Clinton Central School in Champlain.

The Blue Bomber girls had four runners finish inside the top-10, earning the conference crown with 54 points. The Saranac Central Spartans, which had won the CVAC title the past two seasons, was second with 60 and the Peru Nighthawks were third with 79. Saranac Lake placed fifth out of eight teams with 85.

Meanwhile, on the boys side, Saranac Lake’s Jake Kollmer was the overall winner of the meet, finishing the course in 16 minutes, 8.3 seconds. However, the Beekmantown Eagles won the boys title with 46 points, while Saranac Central was second with 78 and Saranac Lake was third with 84. Lake Placid’s boys placed eighth out of 10 teams with 175.

The Spartans’ Sienna Boulds (18:49.53) placed first in the the girls race, Peru’s Maddy Welc (19:04.74) was second and Saranac Central teammate Laura Denial (19:14.99) earned third. What followed was a cohort of Blue Bomber runners to guide them to their first league title since 2021.

Lake Placid’s Leila Fey (19:40.18) placed fourth, with teammates Kai McKinnon (19:48.70) and Norah Francis (20:04.72) in fifth and sixth, respectively. Dual athlete Maya Garrison (20:35.13), who also played soccer this season, placed ninth overall.

The Blue Bomber girls closed out the day with Holly Erenstone (22:38.95) in 31st, Jenna Fay (22:50.81) in 37th and Rose Wenzler (25:30.66) in 60th.

The first Red Storm girls runner to finish was Nora Daley (20:37.11) in 10th, while teammate Asa Bruno (20:37.68) placed 11th. Saranac Lake also had strong finishes from Cadence Kennedy (21:04.69) in 13th, Eloise Zobel (22:06.18) in 24th and Lizzie Harvey (22:14.86) in 27th.

The Red Storm were rounded out by Lila Zobel (22:42.47) in 32nd; Zoe Carpenter (23:37.60) in 46th; Lauryn Caldwell (23:46.73) in 47th; Abilene Varner (25:52.14) in 63rd; and Maggie Reed (26:17.03) in 64th.

With Kollmer leading the way on the boys side, Saranac Lake had four other runners crack the top-30 in Saturday’s race. Keaton Daley (17:22.87) placed 17th, Ebin Meissner (17:25.97) was 18th, Emmett VanBuskirk (17:50.23) earned 25th and Liam Fletcher (17:51.75) was 27th.

The Red Storm were rounded out by Alex Evans (18:10.94) in 32nd; Jonah Seleni (18:59.19) in 47th; Colin Glascock (19:41.71) in 61st; and Wyatt Laymon (20:26.92) in 73rd.

Beekmantown’s Nolan Laidman (16:12.19) and Jonathan Slick (16:18.41) finished in second and third, respectively.

Lake Placid standout Aidan Fay led the way for his team, placing fifth with a time of 16:28.61, while teammate Colin Francis was 14th in 17:15.56. Jesse Carlson (19:40.69) placed 60th, Jim Guglielmi (19:52.29) earned 67th and Nicholas O’Brien (20:47.33) took 77th to close out the scoring. The Blue Bombers final two runners were Robert Bowen (20:54.61) in 78th and Calvin Branchaud (23:28.40) in 92nd.

Following Saturday’s race, the Lake Placid cross country team, as well as Saranac Lake’s cross country team were scheduled to compete for sectional titles and state qualifier spots on Nov. 8 at the Cobble Hill Golf Course in Elizabethtown. The girls race kicked off at 1:30 p.m., while the boys race was set for a 2:20 p.m. start.