All of the area’s indoor track and field teams were busy again with the Bob Grieve Memorial Invitational, which took place last Tuesday and Wednesday at SRC Arena.
In the second of those meets, the West Genesee girls side, mostly based on wins by Laura Leff and Abby Uczen, made its way to fourth place in a 26-team field, earning 31 points, though it was far from the Fayetteville-Manlius winning total of 95 points.
Leff took on the F-M distance runners in the 1,000-meter run and beat them, getting under the three-minute mark as her time of two minutes, 58.05 left the Hornets’ Alana Pearl (3:03.06) and Annika Avery (3:07.01) chasing her.
Meanwhile, Uczen earned another title in the pole vault, soaring past a height of 9 feet 9 inches, more than a foot better than runner-up Shae Shenandoah (Liverpool), who cleared 8’6”. From Westhill/Bishop Ludden, Caroline Black (7 feet) took fifth in that event.
WG also saw Brianna Richardson record a third-place triple jump of 33’ ¾” and take fourth place in the 55-meter hurdles in 9.69 seconds. Leff, Allison Iles, Lindsay Weaver and Nicole Paone took sixth (4:33.10) in the 4×400 relay.
Marcellus had the quartet of Rachel Garn, Abby Fallon, Molly McGuane and Shannon Twombly make their way to third place in the 1,600 sprint medley in 4:31.68. Jordan-Elbridge’s Brianna Byrnes claimed third (1:46.70) in the 600-meter run to earn all of the Eagles’ points.
Most of Westhill/Ludden’s points came from seeing Bella Sterly (32’2”) and Kayla Wild (32’ 1 ¼”) take third and fourth, respectively, in the shot put. Westhill/Ludden also had a fifth (13:23.61) in the distance medley relay as Erin Morrell, Emily Mizer, Caroline Coates and Annibel Coolican took part.
A night earlier, the boys Grieve meet saw West Genesee pick up 28 points for sixth place. Marcellus had 10 points, one more than Solvay and Westhill/Bishop Ludden, with Jordan-Elbridge earning three points. F-M (69 points) again finished on top.
The Mustangs gained all of its points by winning the 1,600 sprint medley relay. Ryan Manahan, Nate Waite, Justin Garn and Nick Nye tore to the finish line in a time of 3:40.59, beating runner-up Rome Free Academy (3:41.65) by 1.06 seconds.
Over in the 4×400 relay, it was WG roaring to victory, the team of Jack Erhard, Nick Garty, Mike Lannon and Pete Richardson hitting the line in 3:45.40 as Westhill/Ludden’s quartet of Christian St. Amour, Peter Lynch, Xavier Fleurinor and Casey Bunce were second in 3:47.18.
Individually or the Wildcats, Wes Randall rose to third place in the 300 sprint, getting a time of 38.34 seconds as J-E’s Dylan Whittico (39.11 seconds) finished sixth. Randall’s teammate, Logan MacNulty, needed 2:44.48 to earn third place in the 1,000.
WG also was strong in the distance medley relay, where Erhard, Lannon, Richardson and Nate Conroy finished in 10:57.98 and took third place. J-E’s quartet of Whittico, Bill DiRenzo, Jacob Patterson and Jack Gugel were fifth in 11:29.41, with Westhill/Ludden getting sixth place in 11:34.82.
Solvay earned eight of its nine points in the high jump, where Brian McLeod cleared exactly 6 feet for second place, topped only by Corcoran’s Charles Stokes, who won with 6’4”. Isaiah Lee had the Bearcats’ other point, going 38’6 ¾” for sixth place in the triple jump.
