Only by a small amount of points did Jamesville-DeWitt’s indoor track and field teams miss a clean sweep of last Wednesday night’s Section III Class A championship meets at SRC Arena.
The girls Red Rams won big, with 147 points as Westhill/Bishop Ludden (65 points) was far back in second place. But in the boys meet, J-D, with 111 points, finished just behind Westhill/Ludden’s total of 121 points.
East Syracuse-Minoa, participating in both Class A meets, finished fourth in the eight-team girls meet by picking up 56 points, with the boys Spartans in fifth as it earned 36 points.
Rachel Fairbanks led the girls Rams. Individually, Fairbanks claimed the 1,000-meter run in 3:05.38, led a 1-2 J-D sweep as Laura Wengert got second place in 3:06.91. Fairbanks also was victorious in the 600-meter run in 1:40.29, more than two seconds clear of the field.
Then, in the 4×800 relay, Fairbanks, teaming with Carpenter, Wengert and Samantha Clemons, ran the two miles in 9:58 flat, while ESM’s quartet of Natalie Marra, Gabby Pallotta, Juliette Miller and Maria Miner were second in 10:19.44.
J-D cleaned up in most of the field events, too, with Sierra Vasiliou at the helm. Vasiliou beat the field in the shot put with a throw of 33 feet 2 ¼ inches, with Tangela Hightower fourth and Salwa El-Hindi fifth.
Moving to the long jump, Vasiliou soared 17’4 ¼”, beating the field by more than a foot and a half as teammate Patrece Martin (15’1 ¾”) was fifth. But Martin had her moment in the triple jump, going 35’6 ½” to leave Mexico’s Hannah West (32’1 ¼”) and the field more than three feet behind her.
Taylor-Rae Danforth won the pole vault, clearing 9’6” as teammate Brooke DeRoberts (7’) was fourth. Then she teamed with Vasiliou, Martin and Ally Fox as J-D, in the 4×200 relay, prevailed in 1:51.22, with ESM (1:59.85) settling into third place.
Fox, on her own, won the 300-meter dash in 44.61 seconds and, in the 55-meter dash, was second (7.59 seconds) to Mexico’s Chelsea Beshures (7.38 seconds) in the 55-meter dash, while Danforth had a second-place showing in the 55-meter hurdles in 9.88 seconds, trailing only Homer’s Jekeytha Adkins (9.03 seconds), who finished second to Vasiliou in the long jump.
ESM did claim both of the longest individual races, though, as Marra held off Carpenter, 4:53.59 to 4:54.48, to prevail in the 1,500-meter run and Pallotta roared to first place in 11:12.33, leaving J-D’s Hannah Stefl (11:46.12) in third place.
And the Spartans broke up the Rams’ domination in field events thanks to Nina Zesky, who cleared 5’1” in the high jump to edge New Hartford’s Maya Hamonds (5’) by an inch to take the victory.
The Spartans’ Kate McGarrity got to fourth in the 55 sprint (8.07 seconds) and fifth in the 300, while Miller was fourth in the 600 (1:46.09) and Grace Maring was sixth in the 1,000.
J-D’s quartet of Casey Keane, Kim Walsh, Mackenzie Maxam and McKenzie Kallquist was third in the 4×400 relay in 4:32.62, with the Spartans (4:56.47) in fourth place.
Moving to the boys meet, J-D could not quite catch Westhill/Ludden despite its own series of high finishes, hurt especially when it was unable to finish a 4×200 relay where it was one of the favorites.
Zach Liebmann paced the Rams’ efforts. In the pole vault, he cleared 13 feet for the victory as ESM teammates Corey Vollmer (11’6”) and Caiden Moynihan (10’6”) were second and third, respectively Liebmann also won the 300 sprint in 38.21 seconds, holding off Westhill/Ludden’s Ben Rath (38.34 seconds) at the line.
Taumeras Howard, in 6.87 seconds, and Jordan Franklin, in 6.89 seconds, edged out West Point-bound Westhill/Ludden star Corey Wilkinson (6.93) in a close 55 sprint for a 1-2 J-D finish. Howard moved to the high jump and, by clearing 5’8”, won again, with Jaquan Tearney (5’) in third place.
It was the same in the 55 hurdles, only this time Franklin (8.51) got edged out by Nate Sturgeon, who in 8.50 seconds won by a hundredth of a second. Sturgeon also was sixth in the long jump.
Liebmann teamed with Austin Phileo, Jaysen Ramos and Will Cote to get second place (3:45.77) to Westhill/Ludden (3:40.37) in the 4×400. Will Hohreiter, Samuel Dye, Isaac Tupper and Tom Iandolo were third in the 4×800 in 9:21.27.
Individually, Hohreiter was third in the mile in 4:39.2, while Dye took third (2:49.42) in the 1,000 and Cote was fourth (38’3 ¼”) in the triple jump. Davis Elmore got fourth in the shot put with a throw of 41’6 ½”, edging Brian Roth (41’1 ½”) in fifth, while Jack Healy was sixth in the 3,200-meter run.
ESM saw Jesse Perrone rise to second place in the 1,000 in 2:47.52, just trailing Mexico’s James Gowans (2:46.34). Joe Coogan was third (1:31.59) and Jake Barker sixth in the 600, with the Rams’ Phileo in fifth.
Tom Grayer, sixth in the 55 sprint, combined with Barker, Coogan and Glen Maldonado to get third place in the 4×200 in a time of 1:43.41.
