Elite distance runners from near and far made their way to Baldwinsville for the Bees' annual invitation on Saturday morning.

The large school races were won by out-of-section athletes.

Ithaca's Tsadia Bercuvitz was the female winner with a time of 17.39.1, but Baldwinsville secured the large school team title in that race.

>> Large school girls results

The individual boys title went to Ethan Owen (15.16. 0) of Burnt Hills Ballston Lake. Pittsford Sutherland claimed the large school team title in that race.

>> Large school boys results

74 years later, the Baldwinsville Invite still delivers

More than 2,000 athletes signed up to run in Baldwinsville's annual invitational. Teams from as far as Rochester, Watertown and Ithaca made the long trek to compete.

But what makes this invite so appealing?

"I think it's our long-lasting tradition," said Katie Dolan, who leads Baldwinsville's boys program. "This was our 74th invitational. So it's really neat to hear from other coaches who ran there in high school and have them talk about their experiences running there."

"We've been doing it for a while," said Meghan Titus, who is in charge of the girls program at Baldwinsville. "I just think that it runs so smoothly."

South Jefferson makes the nearly 65-mile trip from Adams, N.Y. every season. The Spartans had the top female runner in the small school race and won the team title for the girls.
 

"Baldwinsville is always our first favorite one for the season because it feels a little bit, in one way, to us like a Frontier League, kind of low-stakes, chill meet," South Jefferson coach Justin Crossway said. "It's just a great atmosphere."

The other element that draws in teams from across Central New York is the chance to compete against other top programs on a runner-friendly course.

"I think a lot of teams like our course," Titus said. "It's fast, and they know that there's going to be good competition there."

"We notice that a lot of teams seek the same venue, and there are a lot of high-stakes teams there trying to do the same thing and get baselines off their kids," Crossway said. "It's not a McQuaid-level, high-stakes meet, but the teams that come make it so without the pressure of having 5,000 or 6,000 runners there. It's a good in-between for us as we build up the pressure a little bit."

Buy-in, brutal hill workouts and summer miles are fueling the Bees' rise

Baldwinsville has set itself apart as one of the top Class A programs midway through the 2026 season.

"We made some updates to our training program over the past couple of years, and I just think that they've fully bought into what we're doing," Dolan said. "We're just really excited to see what we can do."

The Bees have nine male athletes ranked in the latest top 25 for overall speed rankings and five female runners in the top 25.

That includes junior Madelyn Donhauser, who sits at No. 3 with a speed rating of 107. That is fifth among all four classes.

Senior Ella DeFio (92) is 11th on that list, junior Emmy Buchanan (86) is 12th and freshman Ellie Pope (75) is 16th.