Everett Grout Run Saturday at Central Park

PHOTOGRAPHER: Jim Schiltz

Saturday’s 74th Everett T. Grout Memorial Cross Country Invitational at Central Park will include last year’s six team champions, as well as three Section II individuals who crossed the finish line first, Lucas Carpinello of Bethlehem, Philo Germano of Albany and Maryanna Lansing of Shaker.

Carpinello led Bethlehem to the Division I team title with his 2.75-mile win, and Germano placed first in the Division II race where Broadalbin-Perth took team honors. Broadalbin-Perth will run in Division C Saturday with reigning team champ Fonda-Fultonville. The Division C lineup features the Braves’ Matt Hoffman, Jacob Urys of Mekeel Christian Academy and Zach Karas of Rhinebeck.

Urys broke the Collins Park record by eight seconds with a 14:42 over 2.8 miles in Tuesday’s Western Athletic Conference meet with Galway and Berne-Knox-Westerlo.

Lansing won the Division I race in 2011 and will compete in Division II, with Newburgh Free Academy’s Giana Frontera and Kalleigh Foster, and Queensbury’s Tyra Wynn, also entered.

Fonda-Fultonville, with emerging freshman Jamie Kasza, is back to defend its Division C team title.

Madeline Montague of Greenwich is another Division C standout. Colonie won Division II last year and is in Division I, anchored by Bellame Bower. Connetquot won Division I last year and is in Division II.

More cross country

Notre Dame-Bishop Gibbons is ranked No. 1 this week on the New York State Sportswriters Assoc-iation Class B boys’ cross country poll, giving Section II a pair of top teams.

Bishop Gibbons made its invitational debut Saturday when it won its E.J. Hermann division in Utica behind first-place Jordan Pantalone and second-place Jacob Lange. Jonah Allard and Matt Lange ran fourth and sixth, respectively, for the Golden Knights.

Holy Names is the No. 1 ranked girls’ Class B team in the state. Girls teams from Saratoga Springs (Class A), Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake (Class B) and Greenwich (Class D) are ranked No. 2, and the Fonda-Fultonville boys (Class C) are ranked No. 3.

Thirty Section II teams are ranked, 17 girls and 13 boys …

Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake won the varsity girls’ “AA” race at the 48th McQuaid Invitational last weekend in Rochester, with Jordan Casey placing seventh (17:52), Meagan Roecker taking eighth (17:53) and Emily Digman running 10th (17:55) over the three-mile course.

The Spartans scored 68 points to runner-up East Aurora’s 84. Alexis Scott was 21st (18:53) for BH-BL, and Anastasia Monsen was 23rd (18:53).

Burnt Hills also won the varsity girls’ “B” race behind front-runner Erika Frees, and was tops in the sophomore girls’ race.