2026 XC Championship Weekends: Team Prospects & Meet Guide

Confluence Running XC guide · Reviewed October 22, 2026

Who is in the title picture?

Your guide to October 24-25 and October 30-November 1: league championships, county meets, final invitationals, and the teams with evidence behind their prospects.

STAC and Suburban Council race this Saturday. Monroe County and CVAC follow on October 31. Section IV races November 5, after these two weekends.

Open race calendar

Runners at the 2024 STAC cross-country championships in Oneonta — Confluence photography from the 2024 STAC championships. View the recap and photos.

These are Confluence's assessments from results published through October 22 and current meet notices. A contender list is an interpretation, not an official seeding or a guaranteed entry list. We compare team scores within the same race. Course times, school classes, and league divisions stay separate.

The main team contests

Saturday, October 24 · Fortin Park, Oneonta

STAC: four title contests

Large-school boys: Corning, Vestal and Ithaca. Corning beat Ithaca 34-69 at Marathon on October 17. Vestal has five runners among the conference's top ten large-school seeds. Corning's recent team win and Vestal's seeded depth make this a real contest.

Large-school girls: Ithaca leads the preview. Five Ithaca runners appear among the first nine official seeds. Corning and Vestal are the main teams to challenge their scoring group.

Small-school boys: Chenango Valley and Owego. Chenango Valley finished ahead of Owego, 133-166, in Marathon's seeded race. Owego has three of the first ten small-school seeds. Small-school girls: Chenango Forks has the clearest depth signal, with six runners among the top ten seeds.

The 2026 meet separates West/Metro large schools from Central/East small schools. These league groups differ from sectional Classes A-D. Girls varsity/JV start at noon, varsity boys at 12:30 PM.

Sources: STAC's October 22 meet notice and seeds, October 17 Marathon results.

Meet details and past results →

Saturday, October 24 · Saratoga Spa State Park

Suburban Council: several credible challengers

Boys: Saratoga Springs, Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake, Guilderland and Bethlehem. At McQuaid, Saratoga scored 151, Burnt Hills 159 and Guilderland 176 in the same premier race. At Burnt Hills on October 17, the hosts finished ahead of Bethlehem, 110-138.

Girls: Bethlehem and Guilderland lead the current form discussion. Bethlehem won Manhattan's Eastern States race with 96 points, with Guilderland sixth on 176. Guilderland won McQuaid's premier race, ahead of Saratoga Springs and Shenendehowa. Those two remain serious contenders when their full teams line up.

This is a league title race. Section II's class championships follow on November 7 at Queensbury.

Sources: McQuaid boys, McQuaid girls, Manhattan girls, Burnt Hills, host meet listing.

Meet details and results links →

Saturday, October 24 · OCIAA at Sanfordville Elementary, Warwick

OCIAA: division form versus the full field

Monroe-Woodbury's boys bring a confirmed division title. Their October 13 win over Newburgh, 21-40, clinched OCIAA Division 1. They also beat Kingston 25-32 on October 6. This supports a place in the county title discussion, without treating one division as the entire county field.

Kingston's girls bring a strong recent invitational result. They placed sixth in Burnt Hills' Division IV race with 189 points. A complete county field comparison remains open, so this guide does not assign an unsupported county-wide favorite.

Use Section IX's current notice for the Warwick site. Some third-party calendars still show Bear Mountain.

Sources: Monroe-Woodbury team reports, Burnt Hills results, Section IX meet notice.

OCIAA meet guide →

October 24: South Jefferson · October 31: CVAC

North Country: team depth matters

South Jefferson girls and Liverpool boys are the main teams to watch on the host's current entry list. South Jefferson won Frontier with 29 points. Liverpool placed eighth in Burnt Hills' Division IV race. Pulaski, Jamesville-DeWitt, Indian River and Watertown also appear in the host packet.

The host calls this a pre-sectional tune-up, so the school entry list does not guarantee each school will run its strongest seven. Girls start at 10:00 AM and boys at 10:45 AM. Use the middle-school GPS address, 11060 US Route 11, Adams.

CVAC girls: watch Beekmantown's scoring group. Its first five finished third, 15th, 25th, 30th and 32nd in Burnt Hills' Division II race. Lake Placid's Leila Fey remains an individual name to follow. An individual contender and a complete scoring team are different questions.

CVAC races October 31 at Cadyville Recreation Park. Varsity girls start at 11:30 AM and varsity boys at 12:30 PM.

Sources: South Jefferson host packet and team list, Frontier results, Beaver River results, Burnt Hills results, CVAC host information.

South Jefferson guide · CVAC guide →

Saturday, October 31 · Parma Park, Hilton

Monroe County: Mendon and Victor stand out

Boys: Pittsford Mendon and Pittsford Sutherland lead the discussion. Mendon has a 12-0 overall league record. Sutherland has a 9-1 record and finished ahead of Mendon, 165-192, in McQuaid's premier race. Webster Thomas, Fairport and Penfield also bring strong winning records.

Girls: Mendon and Victor are the leading record-based contenders, at 12-0 and 11-0. Webster Thomas and Pittsford Sutherland form the next group by overall records. A dual-meet record and a county championship team score measure different fields.

The posted divisional tables list Fairport, Mendon, Spencerport and Batavia as boys' leaders. Victor, Mendon, Spencerport and Greece Arcadia lead the girls' tables. County awards also recognize league divisional winners.

Varsity boys start at 2:40 PM and varsity girls at 3:20 PM. Team entries close October 25 at 8:00 PM. The meet notice lists $5 per car and no dogs.

Sources: boys' overall standings, girls' overall standings, divisional tables and meet notice, McQuaid boys.

County meet details →

Saturday, October 24 · County racing in Milton

Westchester: watch Greeley and John Jay

Horace Greeley's boys have a leading individual and scoring support. Ryan Sykes won the October 17 Section 1 Coaches varsity I race in 16:06.54, with teammates Sebastian Mendez and Sean Sykes 23rd and 24th. Those places support a team watch list, rather than a complete county prediction.

John Jay-Cross River's girls bring the strongest recent head-to-head finish among these three county programs. They placed seventh in Manhattan's Eastern States race, ahead of Bronxville in 11th and Scarsdale in 16th.

Westchester and Northern Counties appear on the October 24 Sportsdome program. Follow your school's final instructions for race times and transport.

Sources: Section 1 Coaches results, Manhattan girls, venue calendar, Iona Prep's October calendar.

Westchester guide →

Your next two XC weekends

Date	Meet	Venue and useful detail
October 24	STAC	Fortin Park, Oneonta. Girls noon, varsity boys 12:30 PM. Large/small-school titles.
October 24	Suburban Council	Saratoga Spa State Park. League championships.
October 24	OCIAA	Sanfordville Elementary, Warwick. Section IX lists race slots at 10:00, 10:30, 11:00 and 11:30 AM.
October 24	South Jefferson Invitational	South Jefferson Middle School GPS, Adams. Girls 10:00 AM, boys 10:45 AM.
October 24	CSC championships / TVL invitational	Sherburne / Oneida. Listed separately on Leone Timing's schedule.
October 24	Westchester County / Northern Counties	Hudson Valley Sportsdome, Milton. Confirm each school's race assignment.
October 24	Royal Cadet Invitational	Parma Park. Two-mile format, separate from next week's county championships.
October 25	Adult STXC Race 4	Hickories Park, Owego, 9:00 AM. Adult club competition.
October 30	Holland Patent Invitational	8079 Thompson Road. Girls 4:15 PM, boys 5:00 PM. Entries close October 28 at 10:00 PM.
October 31	Monroe County	Parma Park. Varsity boys 2:40 PM, girls 3:20 PM.
October 31	CVAC	Cadyville Recreation Park. Varsity girls 11:30 AM, boys 12:30 PM.
October 31	Harvest Classic	Bob's Tree Farm, Hagaman. Racing begins at 10:00 AM. Varsity course approximately 2.82 miles.

Schedule sources: the meet notices linked above, Leone Timing, Tully Runners' 2026 schedule, the Holland Patent host packet and Harvest Classic host packet.

Then come the sectional meets

Date	Championship	What to follow
November 3	Section IX, Mount Academy	Class A/B races in the morning, C/D after noon. Mount Academy's boys won MHAL on October 22, strengthening their sectional form.
November 5	Section IV, Chenango Valley State Park	Class A: Corning/Ithaca boys and Ithaca girls. Class B: Vestal. Class C: Chenango Valley boys and Chenango Forks girls. These are watch lists from current form and the conference's team previews.
November 7	Section III, Mount Markham	State qualification by school class. Frontier's team scores remain league results.
November 7	Section II, Queensbury	League rivals separate into their sectional classes.
November 7	Section V, Letchworth State Park	County form becomes a class-by-class sectional contest.

Sources: Section IX, STAC's sectional schedule and team previews, Section III schedule, Monroe County's Section V notice, Section II handbook. NYSPHSAA lists the state championships for November 14 at Queensbury.

Section VII's final 2026 sectional date and site remain unconfirmed in the sources reviewed. Its calendar page keeps the planning date labeled as projected.

Already decided: use these results as context

October 13 · Frontier League

South Lewis boys, South Jefferson girls

South Lewis edged Beaver River 44-45. South Jefferson's girls beat South Lewis 29-36. The searchable archive keeps individual finishes and team scores in separate tables.

Search Frontier's 2026 results →

October 22 · MHAL

Mount Academy boys, FDR girls

Mount Academy scored 42 to Wallkill's 68. Franklin D. Roosevelt's girls won with 45, ahead of Rondout Valley on 57. These are completed league results, separate from the upcoming Section IX races.

Search MHAL's 2026 results →

2025 STAC results · Burnt Hills archive · Manhattan archive · All race results

Athlete form · Updated October 23, 2026

The rematches behind championship weekend

54 high school athlete cards, 228 recent finishes and nine matchup stories. The review window is September 12–October 23, with linked finishes through October 20.

These are Confluence assessments drawn from published results and the October 22 STAC seed list. Seed times can include older marks. They remain separate from dated 2026 finishes. Direct comparisons below use runners in the same race division.

Nikhil Datta and Aidan Skuban

Skuban led Datta by 55.6 seconds at Pete Matzke on October 2 (16:51.5 to 17:47.1). Datta reversed the order in the same seeded race at Marathon on October 17, winning in 16:47.9 to Skuban’s 16:56.6, an 8.7-second gap.

STAC small-school boys is the immediate rematch. Both also enter the Class C sectional discussion, where Afton-Harpursville-BG’s Owen Degan adds a strong non-STAC challenger.

Nikhil Datta, Aidan Skuban.

Christopher Lawson and William Boscia

Lawson finished third in Marathon’s seeded boys race in 17:06.0, 19.6 seconds ahead of Boscia’s seventh-place 17:25.6. Corning won that team race 34–69 over Ithaca.

Lawson leads STAC’s large-school boys seed list. Corning and Ithaca remain the principal Class A team comparison. The fifth scorer matters as much as the individual leader.

Christopher Lawson, William Boscia, Graham Wightman, Alasdair Smith, Ashtyn Stark, Wyatt Eldermire.

Vestal’s pack and Connor Smith

At Owego on September 25, Parsons, Middendorf, Hayes and Ciaravino placed fifth, seventh, eighth and tenth. Their published times span 23.3 seconds. Johnson City’s Connor Smith was 12th in that same race at 16:23.1.

Vestal competes in STAC large school, while Johnson City is in STAC small school. Their sectional Class B comparison brings them back into the same class. Titus Patton’s published STAC seed mark is kept separate from his October race results.

Oliver Parsons, Kevin Middendorf, Titus Patton, Tyler Hayes, Thomas Ciaravino, Connor Smith, Nicholas Luti.

Avery Whittaker, Bella Martinec and Kateland Dininny

Martinec and Dininny placed second and third at Conwicke-Stock, ahead of Whittaker. At Marathon, Whittaker won the seeded girls race in 20:44.5, Martinec followed in 20:49.5 and Dininny in 20:50.2. The first three were separated by 5.7 seconds.

Bercuvitz is the leading large-school girls seed after winning Saratoga in 16:31.8. Ithaca’s full lineup makes the team preview different from Marathon, where Bercuvitz was not in the seeded girls finish list and Corning won 38–75.

Avery Whittaker, Bella Martinec, Kateland Dininny, Tsadia Bercuvitz, Mattea Dauria, Skyler Lovenheim, Cora Hayes, Addie Fenton.

Lyla Houser, Sarah Heath and Clara Little

Houser led Heath by 19.0 seconds in Owego’s varsity girls race on September 25 (19:31.8 to 19:50.8). Heath finished ahead at Pete Matzke on October 2 (20:29.1 to 21:04.6). Houser then ran 20:55.4 at Marathon, 21.6 seconds ahead of Little in the same seeded race.

All three are in STAC’s small-school girls discussion. At sectionals, Heath’s Class B watch separates from Houser and Little’s Class C watch. Chenango Forks’ depth is the team story. Arianna Hepler is on the current seed list, with no new finish verified in this review.

Lyla Houser, Sarah Heath, Clara Little, Arianna Hepler, Grace Harkness, Lena Lindow, Ella Goodrich, Katherine Yahner, Rebecca Yahner.

Hellen Zhang, Madison Novotny and the Vestal girls pack

Novotny placed fourth at Conwicke-Stock in 20:07.2, 24.9 seconds ahead of Zhang. Novotny also won Pete Matzke in 19:59.2. Zhang ran 18:59.8 over McQuaid’s three miles on October 3.

The Class B preview includes Vestal’s depth and Owego’s Sarah Heath. Manhattan entries from different girls divisions are not presented as direct head-to-head finishes.

Hellen Zhang, Madison Novotny, Kayla Fletcher, Alana Fletcher.

Chenango Valley and Owego boys depth

Chenango Valley beat Owego 133–166 in Marathon’s seeded boys team race. Datta’s win and Austin Henyan’s 17th-place 18:15.7 supplied two important low scores. Vitaliy Sirotkin led Owego in 25th at 18:45.3.

These are STAC small-school team prospects, not a sectional class ranking. Waverly’s Chase Hine and Norwich’s Nic Sutton bring individual challenge. Sutton added second place at Whitney Point on October 20 in 18:54.2.

Chase Hine, Nic Sutton, Austin Henyan, Vitaliy Sirotkin, Everett Tirinato-Snow, Levi Saunders, Joseph Rullo.

Sectional challengers from outside STAC

Degan won the BGAH Invitational on October 10 in 16:17.0. Class D’s Lewis ran 17:13.9 in Marathon’s seeded race. Favinger won Whitney Point on October 20 in 17:47.7. These races and fields differ.

Degan belongs in the Class C conversation with Datta and Skuban. Lewis, Favinger and Elmira Notre Dame’s Meier are Class D names to follow. Final sectional entries govern participation.

Owen Degan, Jaden Lewis, Jake Favinger, Gavin Meier.

A broad Class D girls contest

Morgan beat Farberman by 7.0 seconds in Marathon’s unseeded girls race, 20:55.9 to 21:02.9. Sherwood ran 20:59.7 in a separate seeded race that day. At Whitney Point on October 20, Belcher won in 20:40.9, Buttacavoli was second in 21:38.8 and Farberman third in 23:07.9.

The Class D watch includes Southern Cayuga, Edmeston-Morris, Groton, Odessa-Montour and Deposit-Hancock. A combined clock-time list from separate Marathon races is not a head-to-head result.

Alexandria Morgan, Paige Sherwood, Madison Farberman, Janne Anderson, Alison Belcher, Kali Buttacavoli, Gracie Williamson.

From STAC groups to Section IV classes

STAC’s October 24 large-school and small-school titles use league groupings. Section IV’s November 5 races at Chenango Valley State Park use Classes A–D. The preview’s class watch follows current published result classifications, subject to final meet entries. Sectional entries are due November 1, so the athlete cards are a contender watchlist.

November 5 race	Start
Boys D	11:00 AM
Girls C	11:30 AM
Girls D	Noon
Boys C	12:30 PM
Boys A	1:40 PM
Boys B	2:05 PM
Girls A	2:30 PM
Girls B	3:00 PM

The handbook lists a 10:35 AM coaches’ meeting and a 5,000-meter sectional course. The winning team in each class advances to states, along with the first five eligible individuals outside that winning team.

Sources: STAC conference seeds, Section IV 2026 handbook and the linked athlete race reports. Different courses, distances and race fields are not treated as a common time ranking.

College club XC · Saturday, October 24

BURC Open at Binghamton University

NIRCA lists the event as the BRC Open, hosted by Binghamton University Running Club.

The women’s 5K starts at 10:00 AM, the men’s 8K at 11:00 AM and awards at noon, subject to change. The campus course is listed at 198 Recreation Drive, Vestal. Grass, dirt trails, gravel, moderate hills and possible mud make this a different test from a road race.

The October 23 public roster lists the clubs below. Entries do not guarantee a start, and club counts alone do not establish a team favorite. Registration closed October 20.

Club	Men’s entries	Women’s entries
Binghamton University	23	22
Cornell University	13	14
Lehigh University	5	0
State University of New York at Cortland	3	5
Syracuse University	5	5