For all the other good things that happened to the Canastota track and field team during last Friday night’s Morrisville-Eaton Small School Invitational, Jeff Willis managed to seize the spotlight all for himself.
Not just content with winning the pole vault again, Willis kept moving up the bar, ever closer to 14 feet 6 inches, the long-established Section III record in the event.
Finally, the bar reached 14 feet 7 inches — and with one successful sprint, plant and leap, Willis cleared the bar and now had proud possession of the sectional record.
So ended a night of activity where Canastota’s boys had 111 points, finishing second in a 17-team field. Only Cooperstown, with 119 points, fared better.
Aaron Walker set two new meet records. In the 800-meter run, he finished in 2:01.9, nearly three seconds clear of the field, then followed it up by racing through the mile in 4:39.2 to outlast his teammate, Robbie Argentine, who was second in 4:40 flat.
Argentine compensated with his own meet record as he won the 3,200-meter run in 10:01.7, with Walker (10:05.4) in third place, and he cleared 5 feet 8 inches for third place in the high jump.
In addition, Argentine helped the Raiders’ 4×800 relay team (including Nick Darcangelo, Alex Spara and Jason Rice) set yet another meet record in 8:;48.7 as the Raiders also finished second in the 4×400 (3:37.5) and fourth in the 4×100 (47.9 seconds).
Alex Lang earned a victory in the triple jump, going 40 feet 3/4 inch, the only 40-foot leap of the event.
Not only that, but Lang finished second in the 110-meter high hurdles in 15.6 seconds, beaten only by Cooperstown’s Alec Silvera and a meet record of 15.5 seconds. Lang needed 1:00.2 to finish third in the 400 hurdles. Derek Arner was sixth in the pentathlon.
On the girls side, Allison Lasnicki provided a highlight, leading most of the way as she claimed the 3,000-meter run in 10:24.34.
