A strong performance by Jordan-Elbridge’s 4×800 relay team highlighted the local effort in Wednesday night’s John Arcaro Boys Invitational at SRC Arena.
In the second indoor track meet of the winter, the Eagles’ quartet of Bill DiRenzo, Jacob Patterson, Jack Gugel and Dylan Whittico posted a time of eight minutes, 40.51 seconds, which beat runner-up Fayetteville-Manlius by 6.40 seconds.
Local teams dominated this race. Solvay’s quartet of Matt Battaglia, Matt Cregan, Eric Goodrich and Mike Nicolini was third in 8:56.72, with West Genesee’s Hunter Buza, Matt Romano, Sean Beney and Andy Wells fourth in 9:18.80.
All of this was part of a meet where WG finished sixth in a 25-team field with 26 points, while Westhill/Bishop Ludden tied for 11th with 18 points. J-E and Solvay each had 10 points, with Marcellus contributing five points.
Most of Westhill/Ludden’s points came from the shot put, where Corey Wilkinson, in his season debut, took the top spot with a throw of 48 feet 8 ¾ inches, nearly four feet better than the runner-up, Liverpool’s Geoffrey Bell.
In the 4×200 relay, WG finished third as Pete Richardson, Wes Randall, Ben Brown and Alex Hudson gained a time of 1:40.80, just behind runner-up Baldwinsville (1:40.66) as Nottingham won in 1:35.48. The Wildcats had the same finish in the 4×400 as Ethan Osborne, Nick Garty, Logan McAnulty and Mike Lannon took third in 3:49.87. Osborne, on his own, was fourth (4:43.55) in the mile.
Elsewhere, Westhill/Ludden’s Christian St. Amour (39.33 seconds) and Ben Rath (39.38 seconds) were fourth and sixth, respectively, in the 300-meter dash. Marcellus saw Justin Garn finish fourth (1:30.10) in the 600-meter run and help the Mustangs finish sixth (3:56.68) in the 4×400.
WG’s Nico Rinaldo tied for fifth in the pole vault, clearing 10’6”, while Nate Conroy got fourth in the 3,200-meter run in 10:03.97. For Solvay, Brian McLeod was fourth in the triple jump with a best attempt of 39’ 7 ¾”.
The girls version of the John Arcaro Invitational is not until Jan. 3. Before that, though, boys and girls teams will gather this Thursday at SRC Arena for the Oscar Jensen Holiday Relays.
