After racing in the Section VII Invitational this past weekend in Cadyville, the Red Storm faced Lake Placid, Northeastern Clinton and Moriah/Boquet Valley. The Blue Bombers did not compete against Moriah/Boquet Valley — they previously faced them in their first meet.

Tuesday’s race was also Saranac Lake’s first regular season meet this year — the team’s opener was rescheduled. Its boys and girls squads got off to a hot start recording sweeps, while the Lake Placid teams split the meet.

The Red Storm girls cruised past Moriah/Boquet Valley 15-48, bested Northeastern Clinton 16-43 and topped Lake Placid 18-43. The team improved to 3-0 on the season.

The Blue Bombers girls edged out Northeastern Clinton 27-28 to earn its first victory of the season. In Lake Placid’s first meet of the season on Sept. 5, the girls had just four out of the necessary five runners to count toward team scoring.

Saranac Lake’s Jake Kollmer leads the boys cross country runners at the start of Tuesday’s meet at the Dewey Mountain Recreation Center. (Enterprise photo — Parker O’Brien)

The Saranac Lake boys swept the meet, defeating Lake Placid 22-37, topping Moriah/Boquet Valley 15-50 and beating Northeastern Clinton 15-48. The Blue Bomber boys defeated Northeastern Clinton 21-34. The Red Storm kick off the season with a perfect 3-0 record, marking their 26th straight regular season victory dating back to 2021. The Lake Placid boys are now 3-3 on the season.

Saranac Lake’s girls took four of the top five spots, with Phoebe Peer coming across the finish line first with a time of 21 minutes and 33 seconds. She was followed by teammates Astacia Bruno (21:41) in second, Addie Ash (22:51) in fourth and Nelle Aaron (23:08) in fifth. Lake Placid’s Kai McKinnon placed third in a time of 22:00.

The Red Storm’s Cadence Kennedy closed out the scoring for her team with a seventh-place finish in 24:15. Holly Erenstone was the second Blue Bomber finisher placing 11th in 24:56. Harley Cohen (26:08) in 16th, Jenna Fay (26:24) in 17th and Clara Boutelle (26:52) in 18th rounded out the team’s scoring.

Saranac Lake had strong finishes from Zoe Carpenter (25:11), Sabine Denkenberger (25:54), Emma Pickard (25:54) and Lila Zobel (25:57), placing 12th through 15th, respectively. The Red Storm was rounded out by Maggie Reed (29:31) in 24th and Lauren Caldwell (33:12) in 27th.

In a competitive boys’ race, Saranac Lake’s Jake Kollmer narrowly edged out Lake Placid’s Aidan Fay for first place in a time of 16:54. Fay finished in 16:58.

Lake Placid’s Clara Boutelle nears the finish line of Tuesday’s meet at the Dewey Mountain Recreation Center in Saranac Lake. (Enterprise photo — Parker O’Brien)

The two runners remained neck and neck for much of Tuesday’s race, with Fay holding a slight lead. But toward the end of their final lap, Kollmer passed Fay with about 500 feet left in the race to seal the win.

The Red Storm’s Sam Bickford placed third in 18:23, while the Blue Bombers’ Colin Francis was fourth in 18:29. Saranac Lake’s Sam Madden finished fifth in 19:33.

While Bickford held the third place for most of the race, Francis did his best to close in on Bickford, but fell short, coming within six seconds.

Alex Evans (19:53) and Jonah Seleni (20:00) closed out the scoring for the Red Storm with sixth and seventh-place finishes, respectively. Lake Placid’s Ethan Cash placed eighth in 20:01 and Saranac Lake’s Liam Fletcher finished in 10th in 20:16.

The Blue Bombers scoring was rounded out by Colton Kondrat (21:47) in 17th and Jim Gugliemi (23:44) in 18th. Lake Placid closed out the meet with Sean Roth (25:07) in 23rd, Jesse Carlson (25:44) in 25th, Nick O’Brien (28:19) in 28th, Robert Bowden (29:35) in 29th and Calvin Branchaud (33:02) in 34th.

Lake Placid’s Jim Guglielmi, left, and Saranac Lake’s Sam Clark dart toward the finish line of Tuesday’s meet at the Dewey Mountain Recreation Center. (Enterprise photo — Parker O’Brien)

The Red Storm’s final four runners finished inside the top 20, with Sage Kite-Whidden (20:19) placing 11th, Austin Shoemaker (20:32) in 13th, Emmett VanBuskirk (21:13) in 14th and Sam Clark (23:45) in 19th.

Saranac Lake is slated to take on Beekmantown and Peru today at the McComb State Park in Peru at 4:30 p.m. Lake Placid will race again at home. The Blue Bombers will host Ausable Valley, Beekmantown and Moriah/Boquet Valley on Tuesday at 4:30 p.m.