With a combination of talent, determination and versatility, the Jamesville-DeWitt boys indoor track and field team captured the Section III Class A championship last Wednesday night at Manley Field House, with East Syracuse-Minoa capturing third place.
Overall, the Red Rams had 103.5 points, beating out Mexico (87 points) for the top spot, while the Spartans slid into third place with 64 points.
As its basis, J-D went 1-2 in the 55-meter hurdles, with Eric Semmel winning in 8.57 seconds and Adam Tyson gaining second place in 8.85 seconds. Semmel was also fourth in the long jump, going 18 feet 7 1/2 inches.
Tyson cleared 11 feet 6 inches in the pole vault for third place, an event where Vernon-Verona-Sherrill’s John Slaven cleared 13 feet 6 inches, the best vault of the entire night. Michael Paul sneaked into second place in the shot put with a toss of 38 feet 9 3/4 inches.
Elsewhere in field events, David Salbert dominated the triple jump, winning with a leap of 41 feet 2 1/4 inches, more than three feet ahead of the field. Jeff Vetter won the high jump by clearing 5 feet 8 inches with the fewest misses as compared to Dan Horn (Mexico), Bruce Godneck (Chittenango) and Jake Kamilow (New Hartford).
Tyson, Vetter, Semmel and Salbert got together in the 4×200 relay to help J-D prevail in a time of 1:37.98, more than two seconds ahead of Chittenango (1:40.25). Max Smith, Bumkuth Jiak, Tim Kendrick and Jake Pusey worked together to finish second in the 4×800 relay in a clocking of 8:57.07.
Jiak, on his own, finished third in the 1,000-meter run (2:47.87), as Jack Knych earned second place in the mile (4:47.67) and Ben Kier got third place (10:27.17) in the 3,200-meter run. Kendrick was sixth in the 600 as Vetter (7.11 seconds) and Salbert (7.12 seconds) got fourth and fifth, respectively, in the 55-meter dash.
For ESM, Nick Sadlocha ran just ahead of Kier in the 3,200, claiming second place in 10:01.35 while also teaming with Zach Stenuf, Matt Lyons and Pete Ferstler for a third-place time of 9:22.51 in the 4×800 relay. Stenuf, Lyons and Ferstler combined with Steve Szlamcynski to take third place in the 4×400 in 3:48.36.
Lenny Kerznowski got third place in the 300-meter dash (38.65 seconds) and was also third in the triple jump (36 feet 4 1/4 inches) as his teammate, Josh Haas, was second, going 38 feet 1/2 inch.
Kerznowski also was second in the long jump, going 19 feet 6 1/2 inches, with Jaquan Williams landing in third place with 18 feet 9 3/4 inches. Haas cleared 9 feet 6 inches for fourth in the pole vault. Zach Van Auken ran to third place (8.91 seconds) in the 55-meter hurdles.
ESM might have been a lot closer to the top, were it not for the absence of distance runner Jeff Sweeney and a disqualification in one of the relay events.
