Even with the winning streak of Mike Rabbitt, the Oneida boys track and field team could not quite reach the top spot in Monday’s Tri-Valley League championship meet at New Hartford.
A series of high finishes left the Indians with 140 points, well clear of everyone except Holland Patent, who rose to the top with 181 points. Vernon Verona Sherrill also had a good meet, taking third place with 95 points.
Rabbitt began his conquests in the 110-meter high hurdles, where he won in 15.21 seconds, comfortably ahead of a field that included teammate Eric Riley (16.48 seconds) in fourth place. In a closer 200-meter dash, Rabbitt, in 22.84 seconds, held off New Hartford’s Greg Sholtzhauer (23.04) to prevail.
Going to the high jump, Rabbitt led a 1-2-3 Oneida sweep, clearing 6 feet 2 inches with fewer misses than Jimmy Moyer as Riley (6 feet) took third. And in the long jump, Rabbitt got a clear victory over Moyer, his best leap going 21 feet 7 1/2 inches as Moyer (20 feet 5 1/2 inches) settled for second place.
Moyer would finally get a win of his own in the triple jump, going 41 feet 9 1/4 inches as Riley (41 feet 1 3/4 inches) again took the runner-up spot. But Riley would gain his own title in the 400-meter hurdles, tearing to a time of 58.03 seconds, more than half a second clear of New Hartford’s Joel Kamilow.
Oneida’s Kyle Blessing prevailed in the discus, throwing it 137 feet 5 inches as Kieth Johnson (107 feet 1 inches) grabbed fourth place. Dan Margo added a third in the shot put (40 feet 10 1/4 inches), where Matt Barlow took sixth. Barlow also helped the Indians’ 4×100 relay team take sixth.
Conor McCarthy gave the Indians a second-place time of 10:40.76 in the 3,000-meter steeplechase, while Jeb Stewart, Connor Lomonaco, Ben Adams and James Barr took third in the 4×800 relay in 9:01.29. Adams, Lomonaco, Moyer and Zach Hall were fourth in the 4×400 (3:41.59).
VVS earned several titles, including Tyler Curtis sprinting to first place in the 100-meter dash in 11.32 seconds as Sholtzhauer (11.47) again finished second. In the 3,000 steeplechase, Mike Eichenlaub won in 10:29.16, more than 11 seconds ahead of McCarthy.
Matt Femia went to work in the middle distance, edging out HP’s Steve Lisi by three-hundredths of a second, 2:04.67 to 2:04.70, to win the 800-meter run, where Bobby Mumford finished fifth. Femia also was second in the 400-meter dash in 50.25 seconds, where Neal Fahey (52.90) was fifth.
Curtis joined Ryan Dugan, Dylan Guider and Luke Lagoy for a second-place time of 45.56 seconds in the 4×100 relay. In the 4×400, Fahey, Mumford, Guider and Dugan claimed third place in 3:38.70.
Nash Robb was busy in field events for the Red Devils. His discus throw of 127 feet 1 inch was second only to Blessing, and he added fifth-place finishes in the long jump and triple jump as Lagoy got fourth (20 feet 1/4 inch) in the long jump.
Curtis added a fourth in the 200 (23.08 seconds) behind Rabbitt as Seth MacDonald went to fourth in the mile in 4:43.44 and also got fourth in the 3,200-meter run (10:35.07). Nathan Dugan was fifth in the 400 hurdles (1:05.33).
VVS’s Eli Cleveland added a third-place effort in the pentathlon (2,527 points), where teammate Adam Litterio was sixth and Oneida’s Tyler Neal finished fifth. Aaron Owens was fifth in the pole vault (10 feet 6 inches) as four HP vaulters swept the top spots, giving the Golden Knights 28 crucial points.
