Amid the best possible weather of a bleak week, the Westhill girls track and field team made its 2007 debut last Wednesday at the Tully Spring Break Invitational, competing against the likes of Liverpool, Jamesville-DeWitt, V-V-S and East Syracuse-Minoa.
Most of the time, the Warriors stayed in the background. But Emily Ondrejka changed that plan when, in the 400-meter dash, she won in a time of 1:04 flat, just ahead of V-V-S’s Kelly Brunscheen (1:04.3).
Emily Owen also was victorious, in the 400-meter hurdles, covering that distance in 1:10.7 as Brittany Pelsue landed in second place in the 800 in 2:27.2.
In the 4×400 relay, Ondrejka, Owen, Pelsue and Abby Lee combined for a third-place time of 4:36.8. Katie Powers, Allison Harrington, Heather Clancy and Holly Katko worked together for a fourth-place time of 11:25 in the 4×800 relay.
Westhill also competed on Saturday at the coed Jordan-Elbridge Invitational, joined there by archrival Solvay as its season got underway.
Here, the boys Warriors debuted and made an impact. Greg Pallotta won the 800-meter run in a time of 2:02.34 as his teammate, Andrew Corcoran, earned fourth place (10:05.18) in the 3,200-meter run.
Solvay, in fact, would deny Westhill another first-place finish. In the 4×400 relay, Greg Manning, Songtha Cosby, Mike Acchione and Al Nappi teamed up to give the Bearcats the victory in a time of 3:38.49 as Westhill finished second, in 3:43.02.
Individually, the Bearcats’ Jason Conners won the shot put, tossing it 43 feet 6 3/4 inches to beat Liverpool’s Pat Single by 2 1/2 inches. William Hnatko had a second-place time of 1:01.99 in the 400 hurdles. Solvay also was fourth in the 4×800 relay (9:03.08).
Both Westhill teams begin OHSL Liberty division competition Wednesday with a three-way meet at home, involving Cazenovia and Bishop Ludden. Solvay, along with CBA, pays a visit to Hannibal.
