Nothing less than the OHSL Freedom American division regular-season championship was at stake last Wednesday afternoon when the Jamesville-DeWitt and East Syracuse Minoa girls track and field teams met head-to-head last Wednesday on the Red Rams’ home track.
In the end, Alexandria Payne proved too much for the Spartans, winning four individual events as J-D pulled away for an 85-56 victory. Fowler also took part in the meet, but both local sides easily prevailed over them – the Red Rams 135-8, the Spartans 130-15.
Payne got going in the first two individual races, needing 15.7 seconds to beat the field in the 100-meter hurdles before turning to the 100-meter dash and getting a victory in 12.8 seconds. A third win the 200-meter dash (26.6 seconds) followed, and Payne capped her day by unleashing a top long jump of 16 feet 9 ¾ inches.
Other J-D stars contributed, too, from Gabrielle Tanksley clearing 9 feet in the pole vault to Catherine Keane winning the 400-meter dash in 1:02.2 and Elena Haarer taking the 400 hurdles in 1:11.3. Mariah Williams had a first-place shot put toss of 30’3 ¾”.
ESM countered with Mia Montgomery setting a school record in the triple jump, going 37’9”. Natalie Marra swept the distance races, including the 1,500-meter run, where she finished in 5:18.1 before taking the 800-meter run in 2:25.9. Lindsay Crego claimed the discus, heaving it 86’11”, while Jennah Ferrari cleared 4’10” in the high jump.
Marra, paired with Kassandra Burr, Katherine Jacobs and Sage Almstead, won the 4×800 relay in 10:16.3, only to see Ciara Norris, Mackenzie Maxam, Alisha McDevitt and Amy Shen give J-D a win in the 4×100 relay in 53.5 seconds. Haarer, Alexia Carr, Chloe Hayward and Allison Virgo got the Rams a win in the 4×400 relay in 4:19 flat.
Stakes were slightly different in the boys meet between ESM and J-D, but here the Spartans came out on top by a 74-67 margin to move to 8-0 and clinch its outright regular-season league title. The Red Rams fell to 5-3, though it beat Fowler to split the meet.
Jeremy McGrath was as important to ESM’s win as Payne was to J-D in the girls meet. In the long jump, McGrath went 21 feet 2 inches on his best attempt, augmenting a meet where he also won the 110 high hurdles in 15.2 seconds and the 400 hurdles in 1:03.4.
Jared Henry went 2;07.8 to win the 800 for the Spartans and Abdullah Mujcic won the 200 in 22.9 seconds, while Nyzhier Jefferson threw the shot put 42’1”. Joe Hunter won the triple jump by going 38’10 ¾” as Conor Harrigan won the high jump by clearing 5’8”.
For J-D, Patrick Dye won the mile in 4:41.5 and the 3,200-meter run in 10:14.5, while Mike Potamianos took the 400 sprint in 52.6 seconds. Jhakeer Jamison was first in the 100 in 11.1 seconds as Chris Blust cleared 11 feet in the pole vault and Henry Middleton won the discus, throwing it 105’5”.
In the relays, the Rams won twice, seeing Potamianos, Jamison, Trey Greene and Jan Ramirez claim the 4×100 in 44.1 seconds as Juan Smith, Joey Armenta and Justin Ebert joined Potamianos to win the 4×400 in 3:44.3. But in the 4×800, ESM prevailed as Henry, Matt Young, Nick Berg and Nate Castor got a time of 8:59.3.
From there, J-D went on to register a big victory in Friday’s Oneida Invitational, prevailing on the boys side with 68 points to pull away from runner-up Homer (49 points) and the rest of a 23-team field.
Potamianos, in 52.27 seconds, got second place behind Nottingham’s Abraham Tambah (51.89 seconds) in the 400 sprint, with David Fikhman fifth in 53.44 seconds. Jamison got to third place in the 100 in 11.48 seconds, where Armenta was seventh.
Jesse Johnson and Almighty Bornfreedom both cleared 5’6” in the high jump, with Johnson second and Bornfreedom third as he also got fifth place (39’6 ½”) in the triple jump.
In the 4×100, Potamianos, Jamison, Greene and Ramirez went 45.56 seconds, beaten only by Whitesboro’s winning 45.03 seconds as Greene went on to finish third (19’6 ¼”) in the long jump. More points came from the 4×400, where Fikhman, Armenta, Ebert and Shane Smith got third place in 3;35.62.
Dye got third place in the 3,200 in 9:52.87, while Alex Carbacio was third in the 110 hurdles in 17.02 seconds. Middleton was fifth in the discus with a throw of 114’11” and Chris Blust cleared 10’6” for fifth place in the pole vault. Miles Chandler gained sixth place in the mile in 4:52.53 as Sam Glisson got eighth place in the 800.
Meanwhile, the J-D girls were third with 62.33 points behind Whiteboro, who won with 72 points, and host Oneida, with 68 points, even though Payne won the pentathlon, winning all five individual events and piling up 2,903 points to finish 307 points ahead of the runner-up, Solvay’s Katie Harrington.
Butler won, too, going 3,000 meters in 10:17.87 to top the field by nearly 11 seconds as Vinciguerra went 4:57.30 to edge Rome Free Academy’s Marian Draper (4:57.69) and prevail in the 1,500. Tanksley, clearing 9 feet, was second to South Lewis’ Christina Platt (10 feet) in the pole vault as Sara Signorelli was fourth, topping 8’6”.
Palin, Amelia Gilbert, Kim Walsh and Abigail Leavitt went 10:42.13 in the 4×800 to finish second behind Whitesboro (10:31.38), with the Rams also fourth in the 4×100 in 53.53 seconds. Keane was sixth in the 400 sprint. Lauren Saletsky tied for fourth in the high jump as Mariah Williams and Jessica Pace were fifth and sixth, respectively, in the shot put.
