West Genesee’s Wes Randall and Westhill/Bishop Ludden’s Corey Wilkinson were among the local boys indoor track athletes earning victories during Wednesday’s Fred Kirschenheiter Memorial Invitational at SRC Arena.
Randall would earn first place in the 300-meter dash. With a time of 38.60 seconds, Randall held off Corcoran’s Roald Jennings (38.84 seconds) for the title as Westhill/Ludden’s Christian St. Amour got third place in 38.88 seconds.
Wilkinson, meanwhile, continued his mastery of the shot put. His top toss of 48 feet 11 ¼ inches was well clear of Liverpool’s Geoffrey Bell (47’4”) and the rest of the field. Westhill/Ludden’s Anthony Pecoriello was eighth.
Overall, WG, with 27 points, finished alone in sixth place in the team standings. Westhill/Ludden had 17 points for 11th place, just behind Solvay (18.5 points) in 10th.
The Wildcats saw Pete Richardson gain fourth place in the 55-meter hurdles in 8.52 seconds, while teammate Nate Conroy was fourth (2:36.70) in the 1,000-meter run. Jack Erhard was sixth in the 600-meter run (1:30.29) as Mike Lannon took seventh in the 3,200-meter run.
Together, Erhard, Lannon, Conroy and Logan MacNulty rose to third in the 4×800 relay in 8:40.63. Jordan-Elbridge’s team of Jake Patterson, Bill DiRenzo, Dylan Whittico and Austin Milton were fifth (9:00.31), just ahead of Westhill/Ludden (9:01.09) in sixth.
Solvay’s quartet of Matt Battaglia, Eric Goodrich, Nick Cometti and Owen Ryan nearly won the 4×400 relay, but settled into second place (3:39.58) behind CBA (3:37.32) as WG finished fifth in 3:49.93.
That same Bearcats group, except for Ryan (he was replaced by Josh Marotti), needed 1:40.82 to take fourth place in the 4×200 relay. Ryan Manahan, Will Coon, Brian O’Connell and Nate Waite put Marcellus (1:41.38) in sixth place, its best finish of the meet.
Solvay’s Brian McLeod took fourth place in the high jump, clearing 6’, and was sixth in the long jump with a leap of exactly 20’. Marotti tied for fifth in the pole vault by clearing 11’.
When the girls indoor track teams gathered at SRC Arena a day later for its portion of the Kirschenheiter meet, West Genesee’s Laura Leff went to the top again.
During the 1,500-meter run, Leff steadily pulled away from F-M’s Alana Pearl, who offered up a strong challenge. In a time of four minutes, 33.96 seconds, Leff beat Pearl by 2.40 seconds.
WG, with 14 points, tied with Marcellus for 12th place, two points clear of Westhill/Ludden. Other than Leff, the Wildcats’ only points came in the 4×400, where Allison Iles, Sarah Sveen, Megan Hannahan and Valerie Pirro took fourth place in 4:32.97.
Rachel Garn earned all of the Mustangs’ points. In the 600, Garn, in a time of 1:42.93, edged out Liverpool’s Ore Akinpelu (1:42.95) for second place, trailing only F-M’s Olivia Ryan (1:41.05), while in the 1,000 Garn sped to third place in 3:03.65.
Most of Westhill/Ludden’s points came from the shot put, where Bella Sterly threw it 32’11” to finish second as Nottingham’s Shayna Santorelli-Hansen (37 feet exactly) prevailed and Sterly’s teammate, Kayla Wild, finished fifth. J-E’s Brianna Byrnes was fourth in the 600 in 1:44.57 as Westhill/Ludden took sixth (10:21.20) in the 4×800.
The post-season starts for all the local teams this week with the CNY Counties League and Onondaga High School League championship meets, which take place next Thursday (boys) and Friday (girls) at SRC Arena.
