No one got close to the Westhill girls indoor track and field team as it used its all-around strength to capture the Section III Class B-1 championship Saturday night at SRC Arena.
The Warriors finished with 143.5 points, well clear of runner-up Institute of Technology Central, who had 53.5 points. And the Westhill boys had a strong showing, too, earning third place with 70 points behind Central Valley Academy and Vernon-Verona-Sherrill.
Ashley Heffernan went 9.25 seconds to prevail in the 55-meter hurdles, with Lauren Holstein, Lauren Bendall and Quinn Mannion in the fourth through sixth spots. In the pole vault, Heffernan cleared 9 feet to win as Corine Allen was fourth, Mannion fifth and Mary Kate Rewakowski sixth. Heffernan added a third-place long jump of 15’8 1/2″.
Westhill won the 4×400 as Bendall, Katherine Evans, Marisa Rosati and Kennedy Rose posted 4:22.22 ahead of Homer’s second-place 4:24.74, while Ashley Bolesh claimed the triple jump with a top leap of 34’5 1/2″ as Kate Bendall finished sixth.
Rose was third in the 600-meter run in 1:47.97, edging Addie Lowery (1:48.04) in fourth place, with Evans, Bolesh, Kate Bendall and Lauren Bendall second in the 4×200 relay in 1:53.79.
On her own, Bolesh took second in the 1,000-meter run in 3:14.88, with Angie Mesa second in the 55-meter dash in 7.55 seconds just ahead of teammate Za’Myaa Williams (7.86) in third place. Liz Kessler was second in the 1,500-meter run in 5:15.51, with Mesa second in the 300-meter dash in 43.21 seconds, beating out Ryan Murphy in third (44.93) and Addie Lowery in fourth place.
Madison Scheirer cleared 4’8″ in the high jump and landed in second place, with Allen tying for fourth and Abigail Cottrell sixth. Murphy threw the shot put 29’7 1/2″ to finish third, also taking seventh in the weight throw.
Brandon Mulholland, in 2:50.72, got second place in the 1,000, with Josiah Miggiani third in 2:54.54. In the 600, Mike Ferrara got second place in 1:27.76 and Brian Kenny (1:29.33) finished fourth. Ferrara adding a third in the 300 in 38.92 seconds.
Jacob Fricano was fourth in the 3,200-meter run in 10:45.71, with Angelo Carr (10:52.72) fifth as the Warriors took third in the 4×800 in 9:17.10, third in the 4×200 in 1:43.72 and fourth in the 4×400.
Spencer Fountain finished fifth in the triple jump with 34’11” and Luke Kelly got fifth in the 55 hurdles. Evan Frost was sixth in the 55 sprint, with Mulholland sixth and Fricano seventh in the 1,600-meter run.
Solvay was also in the Class B-1 sectional meet and earned 23 points on the girls side, with the boys Bearcats getting 20 points, half of them from X’Zavier Morris throwing the shot put 42’2 1/4″ to top the 40’7 1/4″ from Westhill’s Ben Helfeld in second place, Helfeld also finishing fifth in the weight throw.
The boys Bearcats also had Cole Bagozzi finish third in the 55 sprint in 6.99 seconds and Allen Cawthon (7.07) take fourth place. On the girls side, Erica Bagozzi was second (8’6″) to Heffernan in the pole vault, with Sophia Guadagnolo fourth and Emily Britton sixth in the shot put.
Earlier in the day, West Genesee took part in the sectional Class AA meet, won by Cicero-North Syracuse on the boys side and Fayetteville-Manlius on the girls side.
The boys Wildcats were fourth in the 4×400 in 3:42.35, Matt Bartolotta getting fourth place in the 1,600 in 4:36.90 and WG fifth in the 4×800 in 8:51.63, plus a sixth (1:39.34) in the 4×200. Brandon Scott was sixth and Connor Scott seventh in the long jump.
For WG’s girls, Abby Kuppinger finished fourth in the 600 in 1:44.20 as Caitlin Mills was fifth in the 55 sprint in 7.65 seconds. The Wildcats were fourth in the 4×200 in 1:49.82 and sixth in the 4×800 in 11:08.10. Alexcis Rydelek gained sixth place in the shot put.
