With the victories, the Blue Bombers teams qualified for the NYSPHSAA championship meet in Chenango Valley State Park, which will take place next Saturday.

After the Blue Bomber girls claimed the Champlain Valley Athletic Conference team title last week, the team had to step up again on Friday, but without one of its top runners, Annie Rose-McCandlish.

“The girls were missing our team captain. She’s a little under the weather,” Blue Bombers head coach Mel Frazer said. “Saving it for next week. She truly is a team captain so that kind of threw my girls for a little loop. But they were able to pull it together with that bump.”

Without Rose-McCandlish, the team squeezed past the Ticonderoga Sentinels 26-29. Moriah/Boquet Valley and Seton Catholic, who also competed in the Class D race, did not have a complete team.

Lake Placid’s Colin Francis nears the finish line during Friday’s Section VII cross country championship in Elizabethtown. (Enterprise photo — Parker O’Brien)

Lake Placid’s Samantha Damico was the overall winner in the girls race with a time of 17 minutes and 40.3 seconds. Her time was the best in the entire section and earned her the title of Class D’s individual champion.

Damico, an eighth grader, will be joined by her teammates Kai McKinnon, Lilly Rother, Harley Cohen, Ellen Lansing, Jenna Fay and Rose-McCandlish in states on Saturday.

After Damico finished, the Sentinels did not give up. Ticonderoga’s Hannah Porter (20:00.5) edged out the Blue Bomber’s McKinnon (20:02.7) by two seconds to take second place.

Both squads traded runners back and forth. Ticonderoga’s Avery Blanchard (20:05.9) finished in fourth place and Lake Placid’s Lilly Rother (20:20.8) finished in fifth. The Sentinels Isabelle Burroughs (20:32.0) followed up with a sixth place finish while the Blue Bomber’s Harley Cohen (21:00.2) finished in seventh.

Even with the Sentinels showcasing a great display of running, it was not enough to defeat the seventh-ranked team in the latest New York State Sportswriters poll — the Blue Bombers. Lake Placid’s Ellen Lansing was the final scorer. Lansing finished in 10th place with a time of 22:12.2. Lake Placid’s final runners were Jenna Fay (23:32.4) and Erin Roth (30:37.7).

Lake Placid's Samantha Damico nears the finish line during Friday's Section VII cross country championship at Cobble Hill Golf Course in Elizabethtown. (Enterprise photo — Parker O’Brien)

“It was tight and Ticonderoga ran amazing,” Frazer said. “But they are on their way and hopefully everybody will be healthy and ready.”

On the boys side, Lake Placid junior Andrew Scanio ran away with the overall Class D individual title. Scanio finished the race in 15:43.9, which placed him third overall in the entire section.

“Andrew was the Class D champion so that was good,” Frazer said. “I don’t think he realized that until they announced it at the end. It was good we are ready for states.”

Scanio’s finish helped push the Blue Bombers to the Class D team title. The Blue Bombers had a team score of 34, which was good enough to outscore Ticonderoga (59), Moriah/ Bouquet Valley (62) and Seton Catholic (73).

After Scanio, the second place runner was Seton Catholic’s Sam DeJordy, who finished with a time of 15:53.8 and Ticonderoga’s Emery Tausinger (16:22.4) took third place.The next runner to cross the finish line was Seton Catholic’s Maxwell Grafstein (16:34.5) in fourth place.

With two Seton Catholic runners across the finish line, the Blue Bombers picked up the intensity. Lake Placid’s Max Flanigan (16:43.1) finished in fifth place after missing the past two meets.

“He (Flannigan) was ready. In practice you could tell he was feeling good. I was a little nervous because he didn’t run for a little bit.” Frazer said. “He’s a senior so he’s motivated and did what he needed and wanted to do. Hopefully he’ll be even faster next week now that he is on his legs again.”

Following behind Flannigan was Lake Placid’s Aidan Fay (16:49.5). Fay came running past the finish line to take sixth place.

“The boys knew it was going to be tough. They have been beaten by some Class D schools through the season,” Frazer said. “My top seven was hard. My six through nine have always rotated through the seven spots, so they didn’t know who was going to be in the top seven.”

The last two scorers for the Blue Bombers were Will Hollander (18:35.1) and Colin Francis (19:17.8). Hollander finished in 10th place while Francis took 12th. With the two runners placing in the top 15 it was enough to earn Lake Placid the sectional title.

The final Blue Bomber runners were Colton Kondrat (19:46.4), Alex Dawson-Ellis (20:05.1), Sean Roth (22:39.9) and Dan Kelleher (25:13.0).

Lake Placid will send the team of Scanio, Flannigan, Fay, Hollander, Francis, Kondrat and Dawson-Ellis to next week’s state meet.

Frazer was proud of the outcome of the meet. She said the team is ready for states.