On the day he made his commitment to the United States Military Academy at West Point official, Corey Wilkinson won something else, too.
Wilkinson played a big role as the combined Westhill/Bishop Ludden boys indoor track and field team earn an exciting victory in Wednesday night’s Section III Class A championship meet at SRC Arena.
The meet was a duel between Westhill/Ludden and Jamesville-DeWitt, and the combined entry’s 121 points were enough to hold off the Red Rams (111 points), far ahead of the rest of the nine-team field.
Wilkinson’s role included a shot put where he tossed it 50 feet 1 inch for the victory as teammate Anthony Pecoriello (42’11 ¼”) was third. He also finished third in the 55-meter hurdles in 6.93 seconds and combined with Christian St. Amour, Ben Rath and Peter Guy to win the 4×200 relay in 1:36.44, more than four seconds ahead of runner-up Mexico (1:40.63).
In fact, Westhill/Ludden swept all three relays. Xavier Fleurinor, third in the 55-meter hurdles (8.98 seconds), joined Guy, Rath and St. Amour to win the 4×400 in 3:40.37, leaving J-D (3:45.77) more than five seconds behind, while Casey Bunce, Peter Lynch, Kyle Fitch and Vincenzo Carr needed 8:48.90 to roll past New Hartford (8:56.33) and the rest of the 4×800 field.
Individually, Bunce, in 10:26.66, and Lynch, in 10:26.78, would go 1-2 in the 3,200-meter run, with Dan DeMauro (10:49.75) fifth. And in the 600-meter run, It was Guy getting the victory in 1:30.57, with Fleurinor (1:31.11) taking second place.
Rath ran 38.34 seconds, just behind J-D’s Zach Liebmann (38.21 seconds), while St. Amour was third (38.51 seconds) in the 300-meter dash. Carr was fourth in the 1,000-meter run in 2:49.10, while Lynch and Bunce took fourth and fifth, respectively, in the mile. John Ringwood was sixth in the pole vault, clearing 9 feet.
As to the girls meet, Westhill/Ludden also had a strong showing, fighting its way to second place with 65 points, just ahead of Homer (60 points), but well behind J-D, who won with 147 points.
Emily Mizer had a pair of runner-up finishes. She was second in the 300-meter dash in 45.71 seconds to J-D’s Ally Fox (44.61) and contended in the 600-meter run and took second place in 1:42.89 to J-D’s Rachel Fairbanks, who won in 1:40.29.
Bella Sterly, with a toss of 32’ 10 ¼”, was second in the shot put to J-D’s Sierra Vasiliou (33’2 ¼”), with Kayla Wild (31’7”) getting third place.
Caroline Coates got to third place in the 1,000 in 3:13.73, with teammates Erin Christensen and Molly Clark fourth and fifth, respectively. Caroline Black cleared 7’6” in the pole vault and slid into third place. Annibel Coolican got third (4:58.17) in the 1,500-meter run.
Seventh-grader Alaina Kenny was fourth in the 3,000-meter run in 12:08.34, with Westhill/Ludden taking fifth in the 4×800 (11:24.61) and sixth in the 4×400 and 4×200.
While all this was going on, West Genesee participated in the sectional Class AA meet, where it tied Rome Free Academy for fifth place in the girls meet with 36 points and were 11th (15 points) on the boys side as Fayetteville-Manlius won both team titles.
The Wildcats’ Laura Leff broke the three-minute mark and dominated the 1,000, winning in 2:57.32 to beat F-M’s Mary Barger (3:06.30) by nearly nine seconds. Leff, Mary McGlynn, Lindsay Weaver and Maria Matkoski were third (10:19.49) in the 4×800 as WG finished fifth in the 4×400.
Brianna Richardson chimed in when she finished a close second (9.24 seconds) to RFA’s Mariah Johnson (9.21 seconds) in the 55 hurdles and also finished second in the long jump with 34’9” behind Cicero-North Syracuse’s Javielle Fanizzi (35’3”). Maureen McInerney was fifth in the shot put.
On the boys side, WG’s Nico Rinaldo cleared 10’6” for third place in the pole vault. Pete Richardson took fourth in the 55 hurdles in 8.47 seconds. Nate Conroy was fifth in the 3,200 in 9:57.04, while the Wildcats landed in fifth in the 4×800 and sixth in the 4×400. Jack Erhard was seventh in the mile.
