Star turns in field events and sprints, especially by Khiary Gayle and Malik Merritt, almost gave the Skaneateles boys track and field team the Section III Class B-1 championship.
Instead, the Lakers, with a total of 105 points, had to settle for second place in Friday’s B-1 meet at Canastota High School, finishing second to Solvay, who prevailed with 112 points.
In his top event, Gayle put together a top triple jump of 46 feet 1 inch, nearly seven feet ahead of the field, including Matt Short (37’2 3/4″) in fourth place. It was closer in the long jump, but Gale, with 19’9 3/4″ beat Solvay’s Brian McLeod by five inches as the Lakers’ Sam Goodell (18’11 1/2″) was fourth.
Skaneateles also prevailed in the 4×400 relay, where the quartet of J.J. Gregg, Matt Clymer, Ethan Johanns and Max Weiss finished in a time of 3:36.31, beating Solvay (3:39.44) by more than three seconds.
Merritt could not chase down Solvay’s Nick Cometti in the 100 and 200-meter sprints, claiming second place in both events with 11.76 seconds in the 100 and 23.82 seconds in the 200. Josh Lotkowictz was third in the 200 (24.53 seconds) and was fourth in the 100, ahead of Nick Simmons in fifth and Gayle in sixth.
Taylor Weyneth worked his way to second place in the 400 hurdles in 1:01.62 and third place in the 110 high hurdles in 16.55 seconds, while Gregg was third in the 400-meter dash in 52.38 seconds. Gregg, Clymer, Johanns and Matt Delasin were third in the 4×100 relay (8:43.24).
Carson Schwab, by clearing 11’6″, earned fourth place in the pole vault. Nate Molnar had a fourth-place shot put toss of 40’10”, while Matt Hook topped 5’2″ and was fifth in the high jump.
