With every point valuable, the Canastota boys track and field team held off Cooperstown and earned the Center State Conference II League championship Wednesday at Morrisville-Eaton High School.
The Raiders had 135 points, just ahead of the Redskins, who were second with 131 points. Sauquoit Valley took second with 116 points.
Jeff Willis, fresh off setting the Section III record in the pole vault five days earlier at the same M-E venue, won here by clearing 13 feet 6 inches to win a duel over Cooperstown’s Scott Millea, who cleared 13 feet.
Canastota mostly leaned on a series of runner-up finishes, though Aaron Walker and Robbie Argentine went 1-2 in both the mile and 3,200-meter run. Walker, in a time of 4:42.2, beat Argentine (4:51.1) in the mile, but in the 3,200, Argentine won, edging Walker at the wire, 10:31.4 to 10:31.5.
Later, in the high jump, Argentine was second, clearing 5 feet 6 inches, while Walker took second (2:05.2) in the 800, where Nick Darcangels finished fourth and Alex Spara sixth.
Alex Lang had four second-place finishes, good for 32 points. He was second in the 110 high hurdles (16.2 seconds) and a close second (59.7 seconds) to Sauquoit’s Ricky Shorette (59.5 seconds) in the 400 hurdles. Moving on, Lang got second in the long jump (20 feet 1 3/4 inches) and triple jump (41 feet 4 inches), too.
In the sprints, Dan Sandford finished third in the 200-meter dash (24.1 seconds) and fourth in the 400-meter dash (53.2 seconds). Ray Smith was fourth in the 100-meter dash (11.8 seconds) and, while Derek Arner got fifth in the 400 hurdles behind Lang.
Canastota finished second in both the 4×400 (3:38.0) and 4×800 (8:47.2) relays, while also claiming fourth in the 4×100 relay in 46.4 seconds.
In the girls CSC II meet, Canastota finished third, with 61.5 points, well off Sauquoit’s winning total of 182 points.
Allison Lasnicki swept all three distance events. In the 800-meter run, Lasnicki, in a tiem of 2:26.1, held off Sauquoit’s Olivia Waszkiewicz (2:28.8) as Francesca Popple finished third, in 2:33.1.
Also, Lasnicki dominated the 1,500-meter run, her time of 5:02.9 more than 18 seconds ahead of the field as Marissa Williams finished fifth. In the 3,000-meter run, Lasnicki breezed to a win in 10:57.2 as Williams again took fifth place.
In the 4×800 relay, Canastota and Sauquoit went to the wire, both of them finishing in 10:31.4, though the Warriors got credit for the win. Sarah Foran gave the Raiders a second-place finish in the pole vault, clearing 7 feet 6 inches, and also took sixth in the 400 hurdles.
