Another fine all-around effort from Oneida boys indoor track and field star Mike Rabbitt highlighted the work of local teams at Tuesday night’s Section III championship meet at Syracuse University’s Manley Field House.
Rabbitt won the 55-meter high hurdles in 8.16 seconds, edging Homer’s Andrew Gregg (8.18 seconds) at the wire to prevail in the Class A division. He also finished won in the high jump, clearing 6 feet 2 inches, and took second in the long jump with 20 feet 4 inches.
Despite this, Chittenango had a better overall Class A finish, grabbing 48 points for fourth place as Rabbitt and the Indians (31 points) were fifth. Jamesville-DeWitt won with 119 points.
For the Bears, John Laplante nearly won the pole vault, but he cleared 9 feet with more misses than Nottingham’s Werdi Mugaya, so Laplante took second. Bruce Gondeck cleared 5 feet 8 inches for fourth place in the high jump as Ryan Eklund was fifth (33 feet 8 inches) in the triple jump.
On the oval, Brian Bohne gained second in the 55-meter dash in 6.80 seconds, just behind J-D’s Ira Griffin (6.77 seconds), with Josiah Durfee second in the 3,200-meter run in 10:26.29. Vernon-Verona-Sherrill’s Mike Eichenlaub was fifth (11:12.45) behind Durfee.
Gondeck ran to third in the 55 hurdles (8.64 seconds), while Durfee got fifth place in the mile in 4:59.27, just ahead of Oneida’s Jeb Stewart (5:00.61) in sixth.
Brad Murray, Tyler Howd, John Durfee and Greg Foster took third in the 4×800 relay in 9:17.37. In the 4×400, Foster, Howd, Durfee and Jason Given were fourth (3:59.49) as Gondeck, Laplante, Bohne and Jason Given were fifth in the 4×200 relay (1:40.86).
In Class B, Canastota earned 22 points for 10th place, highlighted by Chris Barnhart going out and winning the triple jump with a leap of 39 feet 2 1/4 inches, just beating Clinton’s Alex Freund (38 feet 11 1/2 inches) for that top spot.
Also for the Raiders, Aaron Walker took third place in the mile in 4:34.01, while Zach Szkolnick got fifth in the 1,000 in 2:57.13. Walker, Szkolnick, John Iaconis and Erick Wells were fourth in the 4×800 (9:02.43).
