SARANAC LAKE — The Saranac Lake cross country team had a strong showing at the Section VII Early Bird Invitational at the Cadyville Rec Park on Saturday, with both the boys taking first place and the girls claiming third. The Lake Placid boys finished in seventh place and the girls took sixth.

Paced by Sam Ash — who claimed the individual title in 16 minutes, 31.99 seconds — the Red Storm boys, with 40 team points, edged out second-place Peru with 62 points and Norwood-Norfolk with 67 points. The Blue Bombers earned seventh place out of twelve teams, competing with 197 points. Saranac Lake’s Jake Kollmer also had a stand-out performance taking third place overall in 16:45.87.

The Red Storm boys showed off their depth by placing five runners in the top 20. Saranac Lake’s Aiden Hesseltine (18:23.46), Sam Bickford (18:26.67) and Morgan Martin (18:29.59) finished in 14th, 15th and 16th, respectively. Robbie Sinclair finished in 52nd in 21:26.60.

Aiden Fay was the Blue Bombers’ top runner with his ninth-place finish in 17:58.53 and teammate Colin Francis took 29th in 19:26.11.

Lake Placid’s other runners were Kenny Lawrence (21:57.73), who finished in 57th, Ethan Cash (60th, 22:14.24), Colton Kondrat (66th, 22:51.81), Sean Roth (79th, 26:30.76) and Nicholas O’Brien (80th, 26:37.54).

In the girls’ race, Saranac Lake placed third with 80 team points and Lake Placid was sixth with 126. Norwood-Norfolk was the winner with 50 points and Saranac Central took second with 56.

Lilly Rother was Lake Placid’s top runner, finishing fourth in 20:25.3, and Addison Ash led the Red Storm with a 10th place finish in 22:12.8. Norwood Norfolk’s Sharon Colbert was the overall winner in 19:26.6.

Apart from Addison Ash, the Saranac Lake girls had three other runners in the top 20 in the race, which included 72 total runners. Phoebe Peer finished in 14th place in 22:49.5, Nelle Aaron took 18th in 23:28.1 and Astacia Bruno (23:33.4) claimed 19th.

Harley Cohen was the second Lake Placid girls runner to cross the finish line taking 13th place in 22:49.5. Her teammate Holly Erenstone placed 22nd in 24:04.9. The Blue Bombers’ final two runners included Mya Marshall in 47th place and Jenna Fay in 48th.

Saranac Lake’s Brooklyn Shumway and Zoe Carpenter were strong in their team’s third-place outing. Shumway took 23rd in 24:05.4 and Carpenter finished in 27th in 24:54.1.

The Red Storm were rounded out by Sabine Deckenberger, who finished 42nd, Elle Dawson in 57th, Lauryn Caldwell in 59th, Lindsey McCreadie in 62nd and Elyse Corliss in 70th.

Saranac Lake is expected to shift its focus toward their next meet on Tuesday. The Red Storm will host Peru and Saranac Central at 4:30 p.m. at the Dewey Mountain Recreation Ski Center. The Blue Bombers, however, will travel to Camp Dudley in Westport for their meet.