Enjoying the familiar surroundings, the Oneida boys track and field team won its own invitational meet on Friday, knocking off 19 other foes, including local rivals Vernon-Verona-Sherrill and Chittenango.
The Indians won the team crown with 90 points and VVS was fourth, with 40.5 points. Eric Riley prevailed twice for Oneida, going 43 feet 1 inch in the triple jump and tearing to victory in the 400 hurdles in 56.54 seconds, where the Bears’ Chris Ingerson was sixth.
Riley also got third (6 feet 2 inches) in the high jump behind teammate Jimmy Moyer, who won with 6 feet 5 inches. Moyer (16.35 seconds) and Riley (16.38) were third and fourth, respectively, in the 110 high hurdles.
Kyle Blessing was superb in the discus, his throw of 148 feet 10 inches the second-best in Section III this season as he crushed the field by more than 27 feet. Tyler Miller (118 feet 10 inches) was fourth as VVS’s Brett Field was fifth. The Indians’ David Carroll threw the shot put 45 feet 7 1/2 inches to finish second as Dan Margo (43 feet 9 1/4 inches) was fourth and Field was sixth.
VVS saw Matt Femia win the 400-meter dash in 50.91 seconds, nearly a full second ahead of the field, and also take second (23.46 seconds) in the 200. Nash Robb was sixth in the 100. Oneida was fourth in both the 4×800 and 4×100 relays, the latter in 46.85 seconds, while Rob Murphy earned 2,323 points for third place in the pentathlon.
Going to the girls side at the Oneida meet, VVS, with 65.2 points, rose to fourth place as Oneida was ninth and Chittenango 10th, all behind Fayetteville-Manlius, who won with 121 points.
The Red Devils’ McKenna Novak won the pentathlon, her 1,881 points enough to beat Holland Patent’s Shelby Maldonado by 142 points. Oneida’s Lindsey Casler was sixth with 1,435 points.
Also for VVS, Alexis Kavanaugh needed 12.96 seconds to claim second place in the 100 sprint, and was just as close in the 200, second (26.55 seconds) to F-M’s Natalie Zazzara (26.47 seconds), with the Bears’ Courtney Dyer third in 26.61 seconds.
Alyssa Durant got second in the triple jump with 31 feet 7 1/2 inches, two inches better than Morrisville-Eaton’s Amber Smalley in third place. M-E’s Kim Horton got third in the high jump, clearing 5 feet, while Oneida’s Samantha Carinci cleared 8 feet in the pole vault for second place.
Tammy Beal was third in the 100 hurdles (16.97 seconds) and also took third in the 400 hurdles in 1:10.73, ahead of Oneida’s Calley Lynch in fifth place as Beal aided VVS to sixth in the 4×400.
Jenna Fiacco had a third-place shot put toss of 30 feet 5 inches, adding a fourth (82 feet 6 inches) in the discus. Ronnie Judge was sixth in the 800 and helped VVS claim third in the 4×800 in 10:25.53. Oneida’s Sara Rifendifer was fifth in the 400 sprint as the Indians rose to fourth in the 4×100 (54.63 seconds).
Both of Chittenango’s teams would get back to action last Wednesday, two days after the postponement of a meet with Jamesville-DeWitt and East Syracuse-Minoa until May 23.
Against Mexico and Fowler, the Bears would split both times. On the girls side, Chittenango worked its way past the Falcons 84-34, but could not keep up with the Tigers in an 86-54 defeat.
Dyer won two sprints, claiming the 100-meter dash in 13 seconds flat and adding a 400-meter title in 1:04.2 before beating the field in the shot put.
Meanwhile, Kaitlin Alongi needed 2:43.3 to secure first place in the 800-meter run, as she also joined Shannon Bunce,
Jordan Donnelly and Caity Foster for a victory in the 4×800 relay in 11:21.3. Alongi, Donnelly, Foster and Merdith Furtado needed 4:45.9 to win the 4×400 relay. Mexico’s Kayley Morse led her side with wins in the 400 hurdles (1:16.4) and high jump.
The boys meet saw Chittenango beat Fowler 86-48 and fall to Mexico 99-42. Ingerson did sweep to wins in the 400 hurdles (1:02.2) and 110 high hurdles (17.3 seconds), but that would be the only individual titles as the Tigers’ James Gowans (mile, 800, 3,200-meter run) and the Falcons’ Jamal Reed (100, 200, long jump) each won three times.
