A bit of history was made late on Wednesday afternoon as indoor track athletes from the CNY Counties League and Onondaga High School League staged the first-ever sports event at Onondaga Community College’s new SRC Arena.
This followed two years where local indoor teams had to make long bus rides to venues like SUNY-Cortland, Colgate University and Hamilton College to compete in the regular season. SRC Arena will host all regular-season events, plus the league, Section III and state qualifying meets in February.
First, though, there was the Jack Morse Relays, an event where three local boys teams would finish in the top 10. Marcellus was fifth, with 22 points, while West Genesee took seventh (20 points) and Westhill/Bishop Ludden was 10th with 11 points. Solvay got 6.7 points.
Nearly all of Westhill/Ludden’s points came from the shot put, where Corey Wilkinson took individual honors with a heave of 45 feet as he and Tre Feisner, who was fifth, had a total distance of 83 feet 5 ½ inches.
In the distance medley relay, WG’s team of Kal Strickland, Nate Conroy, Luke Potash and Martin Leff finished second in a time of 11:25.90, with the Marcellus quartet of John Bell, Justin Garn, Joe Fallon and Nate Waite third in 11:30.06. Leff, Mike Lannon, Jack Erhard and Mark Reilly were a close second (9:00.70) to Hannibal (8:59.62) in the 4×800 relay.
Rob Coon, by clearing 11 feet 9 inches in the pole vault, earned second-place points all by himself for the Mustangs as WG’s Peter James cleared 11 feet 3 inches for fourth place. Another Marcellus athlete, Brian O’Connell, cleared 5 feet 6 inches in the high jump for fourth-place points.
Garn and Dave Manke were fourth in the triple jump (combined 68 feet 9 inches), with Solvay’s Matt Battaglia and Ed Kroll in fifth place. Battaglia, Rich Nagen, Nick Cometti and Antwan Days were fourth in the 1,600 sprint medley relay in 4:00.23. Also for the Bearcats, John Salvagno tied for fifth in the high jump.
Moving to the girls part of the Morse relays, West Genesee rose to sixth place, earning 21 points. Westhill/Ludden had 13 points for 10th place as Solvay (eight points), Marcellus (4.5 points) and Jordan-Elbridge (4.5 points) also got on the board.
WG finished on top in the triple jump, where Abby Uczen and Maureen McInerney combined to go 58 feet 2 ¾ inches, a quarter of an inch ahead of Liverpool.
In the 4×400, Emily Mizer, Betsy Black, Jessica Curry and Alex Szelewski helped Westhill/Ludden finish second in 4:19.98, while Amy Hannahan, Allison Iles, Kelly Powell and Alyssa Zeman helped WG take third place in 4:29.80.
That same Westhill/Ludden quartet was fourth (1:58.13) in the 4×200 as Rebecca Rothenberg, Mary McGlynn, Paris Archuang and Lauren Brieant helped the Wildcats go to fourth place in the 4×800 in 10:54.80.
J-E’s Megan Greenwood was second among individuals in the shot put, tossing it 32 feet 3 inches, as she teamed with Amanda Brown for fourth place (53 feet ½ inch) overall, while Solvay’s duo of Kyndra Jackson (third overall) and Alyssa Falcone got second place with 55 feet 6 ½ inches.
For Marcellus, Abby Fallon, Madison Belvito, Rachel Garn and Molly McGuane were fifth in the 1,600 sprint medley (4:43.27). Fallon and Belvito were sixth in the long jump with 26 feet 9 ¼ inches, as Alanna Todd got sixth in the high jump by herself. Garn, McGuane, Eliza Bell and Mary Morocco were sixth in the distance medley relay (14:01.31).
All of them get to return to SRC Arena next Wednesday for the John Arcaro Memorial.
