As the host side, the Westhill-Bishop Ludden track and field teams nearly pulled off a sweep of its own Spring Break Invitational last Tuesday afternoon, ahead of the likes of West Genesee and Jordan-Elbridge.
With 97 points, the boys Warriors nearly doubled the total of runner-up Holland Patent (57 points) as J-E tied Christian Brothers Academy for third place with 53 points and West Genesee earned 36 points.
Westhill-Ludden cleaned up in field events.Keandre Sanders won the long jump, going 20 feet 1 inch, with J-E’s Marion Quigley third thanks to a leap of 17’5 ½”, with the Warriors getting Ben Hunter in fourth place (17’4 ½”) and Owen Hoyne (17 feet) in fifth place. Then, in the triple jump, Sanders went 38’4”, beating the field by nearly two feet, with J-E’s Pat Fordyce fifth by going 34’1” and Quigley sixth with 33’9”.
Hoyne also helped Bryan King and Will Ringwood get second place in the unique 3×100 ‘Shuttle Hurdle’ event in 54.10 seconds as Phoenix (52.65 seconds) won. Westhill-Ludden got a 1-2 finish in the pole vault when Ben Eassa cleared 10 feet and Evan Watt topped 9’6”.
Aside from his wins, Sanders contended in the 100-meter dash, going 11.94 seconds to grab the second spot as CBA’s Tom SanGiacomo won in 11.38 seconds. Alex Ladstatter took second in the 3,000-meter steeplechase in 11:20.50, with J-E’s Brendan Bourque and Nick Sherman seventh and eighth, respectively.
West Genesee’s lone individual win came in the mile, where David Leff posted 4:29.74 to pull away from Institute of Technology Central’s Solomon Lawrence (4:39.60) and the field. Leff would join Paul Stannard, Javier Monserrate and Mark Dellevate to take the 4×400 relay in 3:40.16, with J-E’s quartet of Russell Hines, Pat Fordyce, Ethan Kinney and Marion Quigley second in 3:42.45.
WG’s Russ Graziano got second place in the 800-meter run in 2:06.63, beating out Westhill-Ludden’s Jake Suddaby (2:11.68) in third, with Suddaby’s teammates, Cal Niezabytowski and Cody Badman sixth and seventh, respectively.
Evan Tuthill was second in the discus with a top throw of 104’01”, but again Westhill-Ludden gained more points thanks to Nick Visconti getting third place with a 100-foot toss, Ramy Guindy finishing fourth (94’2”) and Will Swartwood (91’1”) edging J-E’s Brad Marshall by one inch for a sixth-place point.
But J-E saw Marshall put up a winning shot put throw of exactly 45 feet, beating out Swartwood (43’3 ½”) for that mark as Marshall’s teammate, Austin Cassick, with a throw of 44’3 ½”, beat out Guindy, Griffin Walker and Nick Visconti for sixth place.
Hines was victorious in the high jump, clearing 5’6” as no one else could clear 5’2”. Also, Hines, in 23.99 seconds, gained third place in the 200-meter dash, with Ethan Kinney second in 23.81 seconds behind SanGiacomo’s 22.81-second winning effort. Sanders got fifth place in 24.20 seconds.
Meanwhile, in the girls meet, Westhill-Ludden had 87 points, trailing only Tully (114 points) in the 11-team field as J-E got 14 points for seventh place.
Mary Kate Washburn swept the throwing events for the Warriors, heaving the shot put 29’8 ½” and then putting up a top discus throw of 89’6” as her teammate, Shellie Sakran, was second, going 80’11”. Kayla Helfield was sixth (24’6”) in the shot put.
During the pole vault, the Warriors’ Katherine Doherty cleared 9 feet, enough to prevail over Noelle Coolican, who was second by topping 8’6” as Katie DeVeyra (7’6”) slid into fifth place.
Combined, Doherty, DeVeyraand Alyssa Holstein won the Shuttle Hurdle in 52.98 seconds, with J-E’s trio of Abby Fallon, Emily Klock and Nataln Walts third in 1:01.51 and another Westhill-Ludden side fourth in 1:02.06. Klock also was eighth in the 200, with Fallon 11th and Megan Jackson 12th.
Haylei Coolican was second (7:48.33) to Tully’s Ashleigh Crawford (7:20.58) in the 2,000-meter steeplechase, with West Genesee’s Kendall Dombroske fourth in 8:08.87 for her team’s best finish on the girls side. Noelle Coolican, clearing 4’6”, beat out Abby Feyerabend and Emma Bryant for fifth place in the high jump.
J-E’s Abby Gugel finish second in the 1,500-meter run in 4:49.12, just behind Tully’s Michelle Rauber (4:47.15) as Westhill-Ludden’s Genny Corcoran was fourth in 5:12.45. In the 800, the Warriors’ Annibel Coolican was third in 2:30.35, with Liz Kessler fourth in 2:31.01 as Olivia Daigneau was sixth (2:32.07) and Megan O’Reilly eighth.
