2026 Section IV Class C Girls XC: BGAH Wins After Scoring Correction

How BGAH Won by Three Points

Lower team scores win. Afton-HV-BG’s first five scoring places total 53. Chenango Forks’ total is 56.

After four scorers, Chenango Forks led 36 to 37. Myahlee Palmer’s 16 points completed Afton-HV-BG’s total of 53. Grace Harkness scored 20 for Chenango Forks, bringing its total to 56. The fifth scoring positions changed a one-point deficit into a three-point BGAH victory.

Afton-HV-BG’s scoring five

Chenango Forks’ scoring five

Little led Chenango Forks with the individual win. Lena Lindow, Rebecca Yahner, Arianna Hepler and Grace Harkness completed the team’s five-runner score.

Clara Little Defends the Individual Crown

Little won the 2026 Class C race in 20:39.3, 24.3 seconds ahead of Chenango Valley's ninth-grader Lyla Houser at 21:03.6. Eighth-grader Eliana Fitts of Dryden was third in 21:11.9.

The close finish immediately behind them was worth watching. Fitts held off Sidney eighth-grader Olivia Beauchat, who ran 21:12.2, by only 0.3 seconds. Both produced leading individual performances in the championship field.

Little’s first scoring place led Chenango Forks to second in the corrected team standings. BGAH’s five scorers finished between sixth and 17th overall.

2025 to 2026: The Team Title Changes Hands

Chenango Forks won the 2025 Class C girls title 37 to 41. The corrected 2026 result reverses the order, with Afton-HV-BG winning 53 to 56. The earlier comparison describing two four-point Chenango Forks wins used the superseded 2026 report.

Returning Runners Improve

Rebecca Yahner's 57.9-second improvement stands out because she contributed 13 points to Chenango Forks’ runner-up team score. Little improved by 45.1 seconds while repeating as individual champion. These are strong same-venue year-over-year results, although conditions and course setup have not been adjusted.

The Rivals Beyond the Team Scores

Afton-HV-BG's Carly LaVergne led her team in 21:58.8. Teammates Lelaenia Baldwin (22:55.5), Jalyn Winans (23:28.5), Elzie John (23:31.2), and Myahlee Palmer (24:16.3) completed the scoring five. Gabby Gross followed as the sixth team finisher in 25:16.2.

Chenango Forks' Lindow finished 12.9 seconds ahead of Baldwin, while Rebecca Yahner ran only 6.8 seconds ahead of Hepler. Afton athletes Winans and John finished just 2.7 seconds apart. Those pairs illustrate how runners were bunched through the middle of the field, where a few positions affected the championship.

The 2025 Afton lineup included Madison Farberman, who competed in Class D for Groton in 2026. The corrected 2026 results give Afton-HV-BG the team championship after its four-point runner-up finish in 2025.

State Qualification After the Correction

BGAH advances to the state championships following the scoring correction. Removing the corrected winning team from the Class C results produces the following calculated individual positions under the winning-team-plus-five rule used in this coverage:

Clara Little takes the first calculated individual position because Chenango Forks no longer holds the team berth. Carly LaVergne advances with Afton-HV-BG’s team. Melody Sternberg holds the fifth calculated individual position in 21:49.4. Sidney’s Grace Beauchat, 22:04.1, is next outside this group, 14.7 seconds behind Sternberg. These calculations replace the original cutoff analysis and remain subject to Section IV’s final entry confirmation.

A Three-Point Team Finish and an Individual Repeat

The corrected results recognize BGAH as champion and Chenango Forks as runner-up. Little retains the individual title. Both teams’ performances deserve recognition.

Source detail: Palmer’s time is 24:16.3 in the corrected Class C report and 24:16.0 in the corrected all-girls merge. We retain each report’s published time in its corresponding table. This article’s class analysis uses the corrected Class C report.