Some of the elite members of the Oneida boys track and field team went up against the top large-school competitors in the area during last Friday’s New Hartford Invitational at Sauquoit Valley High School.
At the exact same time, though, the rest of the Indians, boys and girls alike, traveled to Chittenango for the Coaches Association Invitational and found their own degree of success.
Competing at Sauquoit (where the New Hartford met moved since the Spartans’ home track is being replaced), Oneida earned 52 points and finished fifth in a field of 21. Baldwinsville (71 points) edged Cicero-North Syracuse (69 points) for the top spot.
Pat McLaughlin and Mike Rabbitt accounted for many of these points. In the 400-meter hurdles, McLaughlin could not be caught, as he tore to victory in 57.22 seconds, with teammate Jeff Barres claiming third place in 1:00.43.
As for Rabbitt, his prime moment came in the 400-meter dash. He pulled away from Sauquoit Valley’s Devyn Hollenbeck and won in a time of 49.75 seconds. Rabbitt also raced to third in the 200-meter dash in 23.52 seconds
McLaughlin was also second in the 110-meter high hurdles, his time of 15.46 seconds just behind Liverpool’s Corey Bundrage (15.36 seconds). In the triple jump, McLaughlin went 42 feet 2 inches, just behind Utica Proctor’s Richard Pete (42 feet 10 inches). He was fifth in the long jump (20 feet 7 1/4 inches), just ahead of Rabbitt (20 feet 6 3/4 inches) in sixth.
The bulk of the Oneida team worked at Chittenango’s meet, taking eighth place on the boys side with 43 points and 12th (22 points) in the girls event.
Kyle Mosack emerged to win the pole vault, clearing 10 feet 6 inches with the fewest misses. Eric Riley contended in the high jump and cleared 5 feet 10 inches for second place. Matt Gilmeister was third in the shot put (44 feet 3 3/4 inches) and Justin Ward took fourth in the discus with a toss of 115 feet 6 inches.
Jesse Christian was fifth (25.91 seconds) in the 200-meter dash, with Eric Riley fifth in the 800-meter run in 2:12.72. Patrick Tayntor gained fifth place in the 400 hurdles in 1:06.72 as Jeb Stewart (11:00.10) and Bryan Rose (11:18.92) got fourth and sixth, respectively, in the 3,000-meter steeplechase. James Moyer took fifth in the pentathlon with 1,904 points.
Rachel Kline gave the girls Indians a second-place finish in the pentathlon, earning 2,013 points in five events as Cazenovia’s Paige Biviano (2,257 points) prevailed.
Taylor Youngkrans threw the discus 96 feet 2 inches for third place, while Jordan Armstrong took third in the long jump, going 14 feet 4 1/4 inches.
