NYSPHSAA GIRLS' CROSS COUNTRY: CORNING'S MARTINEC TAKES 29TH TO LEAD LOCALS AT STATES (7 PHOTOS) (November 16, 2025)

Southern Tier Sports Report
QUEENSBURY — Olivia Marinec of Corning had a top-30 finish to lead the local girls at the New York State Cross Country Championships.

In the Class A race, Martinec clocked in with a time of 18:47.70 to finish 29th. 

“I felt I did really good today, PR’d,” Martinec said. “So, I felt really good about that. I felt like I went out good. I got out in a good group that I was able to race and stay with and help me stay engaged and run fast and by the end I started passing people and I felt really good about moving up and just felt strong with my finish as well.”

The race has some hills, but that doesn’t faze Martinec, who worked all race to stay focused on the task at hand. 

“I enjoy hills, so I felt like I did good on the hills,” Martinec said. “I love a good hill, so they felt good. I felt good passing people on them.

“I think just staying (focused), like not trying to think about other things. I was trying to just clear my head and just run and not think about all the things happening outside of running. So, just really staying in the race and just making sure I’m not getting sidetracked by other thoughts.”

Horseheads’ Mackenzie Baker finished 51st in 19:23.50 and Ella Devlin of Elmira was 70th in 20:13.10 one spot ahead of Corning’s Kateland Dininny, who finished in 20:13.70.

“We are incredibly proud of both Mackenzie and Nick for their outstanding achievements throughout the cross country season,” Horseheads coach Kim Balliet said. “Their dedication, perseverance and strong work ethic were evident in every race, culminating in remarkable personal and team successes. Their passion is inspiring to everyone who supports them.”

Abigail Wagner of Corning was 84th in 20:40.20. 

Corning coach Ray Lawson was happy with how the girls ran on the day.

“Two of the three had their personal bests today, so it was very good,” Lawson said. “If you can come to the state meet and run your fastest time and perform under that pressure, so that was great. And, the third girl, she’s been cross-training for about three weeks, three and a half weeks, so she managed a very good race here, so I was very happy with the effort we gave today and very happy with Olivia as a senior to have her best performance at a state championship meet and I think that will be probably a good enough performance to get her invited to the Fed Championship next week advantage of it so that will be exciting. It’s a perfect day to run fast and they took advantage of it, so very happy for them.”
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PHOTOS BY TIM TAYLOR 

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