By a one-point margin, Jamesville-DeWitt’s indoor track and field teams missed a clean sweep of Tuesday night’s Section III Class A championship meets at SRC Arena.
The boys Red Rams did prevail, with 116 points, while East Syracuse-Minoa finished second with 73 points. But the J-D girls’ total of 110 points fell just short as Westhill/Bishop Ludden prevailed with 110 points and ESM (41 points) settled into fifth place.
J-D’s boys got a pair of wins from both Zach Liebmann and Rob Murphy. Liebmann cleared 12 feet 6 inches in the pole vault, just ahead of ESM’s Caiden Moynihan (11’6”), who was second.
Also, Liebmann claimed the 300-meter dash in 37.92 seconds, well clear of Oneida’s Kris Wuest (38.95 seconds) and the field. Liebmann added a second-place effort in the 55-meter dash in 6.96 seconds, just behind Mexico’s Kyler Felton (6.87 seconds) at the line.
Rob Murphy, who was fourth in the pole vault, made up for it by winning the high jump, clearing 5’8” as Joe Murphy (5’4”) finished fourth. Also, in the 55-meter hurdles, Rob Murphy held off the Spartans’ Jeremy McGrath, 8.39 seconds to 8.60, to finish in front.
Joe Murphy managed a second-place finish in the shot put, heaving it 44’11 ½” to finish just behind Westhill/Ludden’s Anthony Pecoriello, who won with 45’2”.
J-D also had Patrick Dye win the 3,200-meter run in 10:22 flat, with Isaac Tupper (10:49.32) fourth. and long jump (The Rams and Spartans were fifth and sixth, respectively, in the 4×400 relay.
Jesse Perrone gave ESM a victory in the mile, going 4:37.03 to hold off, among others, Dye, who was third in 4:49.54 as Tupper finished sixth. Then Perrone teamed with Jake Barker, Nick Schug and Jared Henry as the Spartans won the 4×800 relay in 8:58.90, with J-D back in fifth place.
The Spartans’ Tom Grayer, who paired with Moynihan, Steve Stevenson and Anthony Smith to finish third (1:43.09) in the 4×200 relay, won the long jump, going 20’1 ¾”, with J-D’s Will Cote in second place (19’ ¾”) after he took fourth in the 55 sprint.
McGrath was third, even though he also went 19’ ¾”, because Cote had a better second jump. On his own, Barker gained sixth place in the 600-meter run in 1:29.79, with J-D’s Austin Philleo (1:32.27) third. Schug gained fourth place in the 1,000-meter run in 2:48.73.
Moving to the girls Class A sectional meet, J-D just missed the top spot despite plenty of first-place finishes, including Patrece Martin’s top triple jump of 35’7” as she also finished second (16’5 ½”) to Mexico’s Angel Bresnahan (16’6 ½”) in the long jump and was third (9.82 seconds) in the 55 hurdles.
The Red Rams’ Hannah Butler needed 10:47.26 to beat the field in the 3,000-meter run, with teammate Samantha Jaffe fifth, just behind ESM’s Gabby Pallotta (11:13.90) in fourth place.
Elena Haarer prevailed in the 600 in 1:44.28, just ahead of Mexico’s Hunter Gowans (1:44.74), as Laura Wengert gained third place in 1:46.81 and ESM’s Megan Vandewalker was sixth.
A key race came in the 1,000, where Emilee Carpenter, in 3:13.18, was second to Westhill/Ludden’s Annibel Coolican (3:09.74), a two-point difference in a one-point outcome, as the Spartans’ Juliette Miller got third place in 3:16.77.
Salwa ElHindi (30’5 ¾”) and Tangela Hightower (29’9 ½”) were second and third, respectively, in the shot put behind Westhill/Ludden’s Bella Sterly (34’ ½”) as Mariah Williams took fifth place. Brooke DeRoberts was second in the pole vault, clearing 8 feet as teammate Sara Signorelli was sixth.
Alexia Carr took sixth in the 55 sprint. J-D finished third in the 4×800, where Butler, Haarer, Wengert and Kim Walsh posted a time of 10:36.74 and ESM (11:09.16) gained fifth place. J-D added a fourth in the 4×400 (4:38.13) and 4×200 (2:01.31), each time behind Westhill/Ludden.
ESM did prevail twice, in the high jump, where Nina Zesky, fresh off her New Balance Games victory Jan. 25 in New York City, won here, too, clearing 5’3” to hold off New Hartford’s Maya Hammonds (5’2”) for that top spot.
Natalie Marra was victorious in the 1,500-meter run in 5:02.33, with Carpenter fourth in 5:11.35. Eighth-grader Mia Montgomery landed in third place in the long jump, going 16’2 ¼”, while J-D’s Adobea Addo went 30’8” in the triple jump to get third place behind Martin.
