West Genesee’s boys indoor track and field team nearly snatched a victory during last Saturday’s morning session of the CNY Indoor Track Association meet at SUNY-Cortland’s Lusk Field House.
During the sixth CNYITA meet, the Wildcats picked up 81 points, just behind Jamesville-DeWitt, who won with 83 points. Westhill was seventh, with 21 points, and Marcellus (20 points) finished eighth.
Steve Houghmaster emerged with a victory in the 1,000-meter run, his time of 2:36.35 enough to beat J-D’s Bumkoth Jiak by 1.50 seconds as Sam Reedy (2:44.92) took fourth.
Jake Lafaver earned his own title, needing 1:28.52 to beat Westhill’s Ryan Brennan (1:30.86) and the rest of the field in the 600-meter run. And Matt Ulrich tamed the 55-meter hurdles, beating Corcoran’s Antoine Tearney, 8.35 seconds to 8.52, in addition to earning fifth in the high jump.
Perhaps the difference was the 4×800 relay, where J-D won and got 10 points in a time of 8:46.23 and WG was second in 9:07.29 as Martin Leff, Matt Serrao, Mark Reilly and Matt Byrnes took part.
Billy Gabriel claimed second in the mile in 4:34.87 and Matt Gonnella was sixth. Elsewhere, the Wildcats had Jeremy Cantello clear 10 feet for second place in the pole vault, as John DeLallo earned third place in the 3,200-meter run in 10:17.24. Zack Lafaver was fourth in both the 55 and 300-meter sprints.
Westhill would get fourth in the 4×400 relay (3:59.06) as well as the 4×800 (9:33.77) as Mitch Lamb ran to fourth in the 3,200 and Peter Clark got sixth in the 300.
Marcellus saw half its points come from Jesse Garn, who tore through the mile in 4:30.20, beating Gabriel by 4.67 seconds. Nick Stogsdill was third in the high jump (5 feet 6 inches) and Rob Coon fourth in the pole vault as Marcellus earned fifth in the 4×400 in four minutes flat.
As this went on, WG’s girls team had 40 points in the morning session, but still finished third behind J-D (97 points) and Fayetteville-Manlius (81 points), while Westhill got fifth place with 32 points and Marcellus (23 points) was eighth.
WG’s eighth-grade running star, Laura Leff, tore through the 1,000 in 3:07.63 to beat F-M’s Jillian Fanning by more than four seconds as teammate Abby Kastick was fifth. Leff joined Alex Incaudo, Amy Hannahah and Abby Kastick to take second in the 4×800 in 10:27.89.
Incaudo and Hannahan joined Katie Bott and Kelly Powell and Amy Hannahan run to second in the 4×400 in 4:25.62, just behind J-D (4:24.92), as Westhill was fourth in 4:33.94. WG’s Morgan Farmer was fifth in the 3,000.
Westhill’s Morgan Roach won the shot put, tossing it 30 feet 11 inches, beating, among others, Marcellus’ Renee Poullott (25 feet 5 3/4 inches), who was third.
The Warriors also had Brenna Rainone sprint to second in the 55-meter dash, just edged out at the wire by Corcoran’s Ashley Ruffin, though both finished in 7.82 seconds. Rainone also was third in the 300 (45.52 seconds) as Caroline Buonocore was fifth in the 55-meter hurdles.
Marcellus featured Laura Quercia gaining second place in the 600 in 1:45.28, as Lizzie Dean was fifth in the 1,500-meter run (5:10.99). The Mustangs were fifth in the 4×800 as Sarah Kelly took fourth (4 feet 6 inches) in the high jump.
Moving to the CNYITA afternoon session at Cortland, Jordan-Elbridge had 28 points on the boys side, just ahead of Solvay (24 points) on the ledger as the girls Eagles finished with 17 points.
Still, the Bearcats won twice, as C.J. Brooks threw the shot put 51 feet 1 1/4 inches, more than two feet clear of the field, and Jerry Santoferrara cleared 11 feet 6 inches to prevail in the pole vault as J-E’s Dylan Kirk finished fourth. Matt Morse was fifth in the 600 and Ed Buczakowski was sixth in the mile.
J-E saved its big moment for the 4×800 relay, where Kirk joined Greg Bader, Mike Marrero and Cody Stanton to win that event in a time of 8:55.22, beating runner-up Baldwinsville by 3.49 seconds. Bader added a second in the 1,000 (2:46.86), as Stanton and Steve Slonosky were fourth and fifth, respectively, in the 3,200.
Moving to the girls side, J-E’s quartet of McKenzie Williams, Brianna Byrnes, Rachel Betts and Rachel Scott were second in the 4×200 relay (1:56.99) behind Skaneatles 1:53.83).
The Eagles were fourth in the 4×400 relay (4:35.10), with Williams fifth in the 55-meter dash in 8.03 seconds and Kim Foltz sixth in the 1,500. Kathryn Alonso-Bergevin was fifth in the shot put (25 feet 3 1/2 inches).
