Ignoring the wind and heavy rain that blew through, area high school track and field teams vied for top honors during last Friday’s Chittenango Invitational.
In the girls portion, West Genesee had a strong showing with 31 points, putting them sixth in the 18-team field as Westhill tied for eighth place with 26 points and Marcellus got 14 points.
WG was victorious in the girls 4×400 relay, seeing Mikeayla DeJesus, Abby Kuppinger, Abigail Cooper and Prelsey Sheley go four minutes, 37.15 seconds to pull away from Oneida (4:36.20) by more than nine seconds.
Also for the Wildcats, Caitlin Mills, Sandy Gardino, Natalie Keiling and Phoebe Anderson were second in the 4×100 relay in 52.73 seconds to Liverpool’s winning 50.95. Westhill’s Ashley Bolesh, Katherine Evans, Angie Mesa-Espinosa and Erica Gangemi were third in 52.91 seconds.
Westhill’s win came in the girls discus, where Lennah Abraham, with a season-best throw of 117 feet 5 inches, was more than 15 feet ahead of South Jefferson’s Julie Jacobs (102’3”), while Brigid Heinrich was fifth with 93 feet. Abraham gave Westhill a third-place shot put toss of 32’3 ½”.
Mills needed 12.88 seconds to finish fourth in the 100-meter dash, with Gardino (13.10) seventh and Marcellus’ Delaney Manahan (13.29) eighth. And Mills went on to a fourth-place time of 1:16.62 in the 400 hurdles, where Bishop Ludden’s Sarah Thompson was eighth (1:20.56).
Mia Mitchell needed 5:47.21 to get fourth place in the full-field mile, with Liz Morey eighth in 5:56.90. Olivia Becker was sixth in the long jump (14’8”) and ninth in the 100 hurdles, with Kuppinger seventh in the 400 sprint and DeJesus 10th. Haylee McCauliffe was 10th in the 800-meter run.
Marcellus had Julianna Szczech clear 8’6” in the pole vault, second only to Cazenovia’s Paige Hunt, who cleared the same height but with fewer misses. Manahan was fourth in the 400-meter dash in 1:03.40.
Westhill’s Haylei Coolican took fifth place in the 2,000-meter steeplechase in 8:11.01, with Mesa-Espinosa eighth in the long jump and Bolesh ninth in the triple jump.
Meanwhile, in the boys edition of the Chittenango Invitaional, West Genesee had 18 points to take 10th place, with Westhill earning 15 points and Marcellus settling for four points.
Nearly half of WG’s points came from Dan Gill, who in the 100 sprint went 11.37 seconds, beating everyone except Cicero-North Syracuse star Jeremiah Willis, who won in 10.89 seconds.
And another eight points came from Exavier Brumfield, who in the long jump went 20’3”, beating everyone except Willis, who had a Section III season-best 22’9”.
Esisas Brumfield was eighth in the 100 in 11.81 seconds, with Luke Mullane 10th in the 400 hurdles in 1:06.51. The Wildcats had a fifth-place time of 4:14.05 in the 4×400 relay.
In the featured Fleet Feet Mile, WG’s Matt Bartolotta was ninth in the boys event with a time of 4:43.25 as Westhill’s Dan Washburn was 11th, while the girls Wildcats had Natalie Buckhout (5:44.58) beat out Faith Knox (5:46.12) for eighth place.
Westhill had Evan Ballard throw the shot put 43 feet to earn fourth place, while also taking sixth (124’3”) in the discus, ahead of teammate Charlie Doebert in 10th place.
Jacob Fricano got third place in the 3,200-meter run in 11:03.21, with Jacob Roberts fourth in 11:03.42. The Warriors were also finished seventh in the 4×100 relay in 47.77 seconds, while Phillip Bogan was ninth in the triple jump.
Also for Marcellus, Nick Roseboom earned all of his team’s points by taking fourth place in the 3,000-meter steeplechase in 10:42.72. Mason Grieb (18.33 seconds) beat out Ryan McCormick (18.34) for ninth place in the 110 hurdles.
Jordan-Elbridge’s Kenny Williams was ninth in the full-field mile in 4:56.42, with WG’s Peter McMahon 10th in 4:58.65. The Eagles’ Vassianna Klock was eighth in the girls 400 sprint in 1:04.43.
