Saranac Lake’s Sam Ash leads a pack of runners in the 1,600-meter race on Wednesday. (Enterprise photo — Parker O’Brien)

PERU — After the Saranac Lake boys track and field team left the Section VII championship meet at Peru High School on Wednesday, the team thought their chances of winning a third straight sectional title were out the window.

And why wouldn’t they? The hosts, the Peru Nighthawks, had already received their sectional championship patches while also taking a team photo with the Section VII banner.

But it was the Red Storm team who had actually won the sectional title. An error in the scoring results was discovered Thursday morning; the field events weren’t scored.

The Saranac Lake boys won the meet with 129 points, while the Nighthawks settled for second place with 122. The Lake Placid boys scored 25 points to finish seventh out of 11 teams.

On the girls’ side, Saranac Central claimed the title with 246 points while Lake Placid finished in fifth with 31 and Saranac Lake placed ninth with 16 points.

Mitchell Ellsworth played a big role in the Red Storm’s sectional title by taking home both boys throwing events. Ellsworth won the shot put with a throw of 50-03 and the discus with a throw of 133-08.

Only a sophomore, Liam Nobles won the long jump with a leap of 20-08 while also taking third in the triple jump (39-7.5). Carter Hewitt, a senior, took third in the long jump with a leap of 19-02.75

Soren Wolford took second place in the 200-meter in 23.36, while Nobles was fourth in 24.14. Wolford also placed third in the 100-meter dash.

After having the fastest first heat, Hewitt took third in the 110-meter hurdles in 16.26, while the Red Storm’s Robbie Sinclair (18.58) took eighth place. Sinclair also took fourth in the 800-meter hurdles in 1:04.96 with teammate Morgan Martin in 1:06.35.

Local runners took five of the top-10 slots in the 1,600-meter race, with Saranac Lake’s Sam Ash claiming the top spot in 4:32.61, followed by his teammate Jake Kollmer (4:38.45) in third. Lake Placid’s Aidan Fay (4:38.57) placed fourth and teammate Andrew Scanio (4:44.78) was sixth. The Red Storm’s Aiden Hesseltine took 10th in 4:51.31.

The Lake Placid duo of Fay (10:04.87) and Scanio (10:05.41) finished in second and third in the 3,200-meter, respectively. Ash (10:25.42) placed fifth and Kollmer (10:29.91) was seventh.

Saranac Lake boys also took second place in the 4×100-meter relay and the 4×800-meter relay, with times of 46.32 and 8:39.53, respectively.

On the girls’ side, Lake Placid’s Lilly Rother had the best finish, taking third place overall in the 3,200-meter race in 11:23.58.

The Blue Bombers’ Kai McKinnon took fifth in the 1,500-meter race in a time of 5:25.52, with Rother right behind her in sixth at 5:25.78. Keene junior Pia Morelli, competing for Lake Placid, took fifth place in the 400-meter in 1:00.66.

Saranac Lake’s Awa Kujabi took seventh place in the long jump with a leap of 14 feet. Kujabi finished in eighth place in the 400-meter hurdles at 1:19.77. Alice LaDue also had a solid day for the Red Storm earning seventh place in the triple jump with a leap of 27-09.

In the throwing events, Lake Placid’s Lily Jones won the shot put with a throw of 26-11. The Red Storm’s Lena Dedivitis claimed seventh place in the discus event with a toss of 71-00 and eighth in the shot put at 25-05. Her teammate, Hotchkiss, took eighth in the discus event at 69-03.

Lake Placid’s 4×400-meter relay and its 4×800-meter relay each took fourth place with times of 46.32 and 8:39.53, respectively.

Saranac Lake and Lake Placid will compete at the state qualifier meet on Friday, June 2 at Beekmantown High School.