It did not take long before the West Genesee boys track and field team engaged with Fayetteville-Manlius for a classic duel at Monday’s CNY Counties League American division championship meet at Cicero-North Syracuse’s Bragman Stadium.
When it all got done, the Wildcats had 139 points, beating everyone — except the Hornets, who prevailed with 153 points. Corcoran was third with 98 points.
WG and F-M split the big relays. In the 4×400, Zach Lafaver, Jake Lafaver, John DeLallo and Sam Reedy prevailed in a time of 3:30.42, with the Hornets (3:32.23) in second.
In the 4×800, DeLallo, Steve Houghmaster, Martin Leff and Matt Gonnella took second in 8:30.92, half a minute behind F-M, who broke the seven-minute mark and won in 7:59.22. The Wildcats also were fourth in the 4×100 in 46.93 seconds.
Jake Lafaver had a big day, as he edged out F-M star Alex Hatz in a 400-meter dash where both finished in 51.56 seconds and Zach Lafaver (52.76) was third. Jake returned in the 200-meter dash and claimed that title in 23.36 seconds, not sharing with anyone.
Sean Howard won the 100-meter dash in 11.35 seconds, adding a fourth in the long jump and fifth in the triple jump. Matt Ulrich took second in the 110 high hurdles in 15.91 seconds, edged out by Central Square’s Andrew McGrath (15.88), while Ulrich added a fourth (1:02.83) in the 400 hurdles.
Reedy gave WG its lone win in distance events, going 10:01.66 to earn first place in the 3,000-meter steeplechase, while teammate Matt Serrao (10:32.58) finished third.
DeLallo was second in the 800-meter run in 1:58.09, just behind Hatz as Billy Gabriel (2:01.20) finished third. Gabriel had his own second-place finish in the mile, posting 4:25.73 as Houghmaster (4:32.44) claimed fourth place. Leff (9:51.95) and Steve Byrnes were third and fifth, respectively, in the 3,200-meter run. Pete Richardson was fourth in the pentathlon.
Two days later, WG’s girls track team took its turn at the CNYCL American meet and finsihed with 73.5 points, taking third place. F-M won with 221.5 points and Central Square (120 points) fit into second place.
Katie Bott earned her lone win in the 200-meter dash, finishing in 27.69 seconds, just ahead of F-M’s Molly Levy. Bott trailed Hornet teammates Molly Malone and Heather Martin and took third in the 400 in 59.61 seconds, but helped Laura Leff, Paige Copeland and Emily Iles finish second in the 4×400 relay in 4:21.84.
Laura Leff, even with a good time of 4:49.04 in the 1,500-meter run, had to settle for fourth place behind three F-M stars, and did the same in the 800 as she was fourth in 2:26.32. Kaitlyn Richards got third place in the 2,000-meter steeplechase in 8:13.64 and was also fifth in the high jump.
Emily Barrierer, with 1,842 points, was third in the pentathlon. Alyssa Zeman, Lauren Brieant, Katie Riley and Alycia Andolina took fourth in the 4×800 relay in 11:06 flat.
Brianna McGraw claimed fifth (13.95 seconds) in the 100 as she, along with Bott, Paige Copelan and Kate Corbett, took fourth place in the 4×100 in 54.32 seconds. Copeland claimed sixth in the 400 hurdles and Delaney Nolan took sixth in the 3,000.
Allie Miedeaner (7 feet) and Jessica Emanuelli were third and fourth, respectively, in the pole vault, with Emily Frazee recording a fourth-place long jump of 14 feet 1 3/4 inches.
