After all the delays and starts and stops, something resembling a normal schedule resumed for the area’s indoor track and field teams, which meant back-to-back boys and girls portions of the Bob Grieve Memorial Invitational at SRC Arena.
In the girls event on Wednesday night, West Genesee again nearly went to the top. Wins by Laura Leff and Abby Uczen helped push the Wildcats to 57 points, putting them in second place behind Fayetteville-Manlius, who won with 85.66 points.
Not only that, but Westhill/Bishop Ludden made a big statement, getting to fifth place with 28.33 points, while Rachel Garn helped Marcellus tie for 12th with 16 points, while Jordan-Elbridge settled for four points.
Leff dueled with Liverpool star Ore Akinpelu in the 600-meter run and won it, her time of one minute, 38.69 seconds edging Akinpelu (1:39.28) by 0.59 seconds. She also helped Valerie Pirro, Allison Iles and Nicole Paone as WG finished third (4:20.22) in the 4×400 relay.
Uczen, meanwhile, dominated the pole vault, clearing 9 feet 6 inches as no one else topped 8 feet. Katherine Doherty cleared 7’6” to give Westhill-Ludden a fourth-place finish.
Garn, who was third in the 600 in 1:39.42 behind Leff and Akinpelu, had her big moment in the 1,500-meter run, where in a time of 4:54.22 she pulled away from East Syracuse-Minoa’s Natalie Marra, who was second in 4:59 flat. Westhill/Ludden’s Annibel Coolican was fourth in 5:01.57, and took seventh place in the high jump, tied with Marcellus’ Mary-Catherine Coon.
Westhill/Ludden gained its lone victory thanks to Bella Sterly in the shot put. Sterly’s top heave of 32’7” beat Liverpool’s Nelilah Watkins (31’2 ½”) by nearly a foot and a half.
WG’s Brianna Richardson nearly won twice, her time of 9.25 seconds in the 55-meter hurdles trailing only Pulaski star Breann Burns (8.63 seconds), and also getting second in the triple jump with 33’6 ¾”, a leap only Jamesville-DeWitt’s Patrece Martin (34’6”) could top.
Richardson also was sixth in the long jump (15’6 ½”), giving her 17 points for the night. Also, eighth-grader Carly Benson impressed in the 1,000-meter run, finishing third in 3:09.59.
Also for the Wildcats, Mary McGlynn, Lindsay Weaver, Maria Matkoski and Alicia Sakran took second place in the 4×800 relay in 10:27.50, with F-M (9:56.18) on top. Genny Corcoran, Molly Clark, Olivia Daigneau and Natalie Jetter put Westhill/Ludden (10:57.54) in fifth place.
Tatiana Monds took fourth in the 55-meter dash in 7.71 seconds and paired with Daigneau, Doherty and Shelby Stack to get fourth place (1:55.63) in the 4×200 relay. J-E’s lone points came in the 600-meter run, where Abby Gugel took fourth place in 3:11.83, just behind Benson.
As for the boys teams who took part in the Grieve Invitational the night before, West Genesee had the best performance, picking up 30 points to tie Jamesville-DeWitt for fifth place. Liverpool took the team title with 85 points, well clear of runner-up F-M (66 points) and the field.
By himself, Jack Erhard earned 10 of the Wildcats’ points as he won the 600-meter run. With a time of one minutes, 26.72 seconds, Erhard held off Liverpool’s Alex Christensen (1:26.91) by 0.19 seconds for that top spot. Jordan-Elbridge’s Dylan Whittico was fourth, in 1:28.34, with Solvay’s Eric Goodrich (1:30.89) in sixth place.
Isaiah Lee nearly won the triple jump for the Bearcats, going 40 feet 2 ½ inches, trailing only Corcoran’s Hizyme Potter, who won with 40’4 ½”, two inches ahead of Lee. Josh Marotti, clearing 11’6”, made his way to fourth place in the pole vault, while WG’s Ejay Harrell cleared 5’8” in the high jump to tie for second as J-E’s Nathan Hollis (5’6”) was seventh.
Westhill/Bishop Ludden junior Xavier Fleurinor made his way to third place in the 55-meter hurdles in 8.58 seconds, where Marotti (8.91 seconds) was sixth. WG’s Nate Conroy took fourth in the mile in 4:36.94, with teammate Sean Beney (4:38.86) in sixth place.
Logan McAnulty, David Leff, Hunter Buza and Mike Richards gave the Wildcats a fifth-place time of 8:47.52 in the 4×800, with Whittico, Jack Gugel, Austin Milton and Jacob Patterson putting J-E (8:50.64) in sixth place.
On his own, McAnulty gained fourth place in the 1,000-meter run in 2:43.32, where Gugel was seventh and Leff in eighth place. Kal Strickland just missed points in the 3,200-meter run, finishing seventh in 10:30.46, but he helped Jackson Powell, Mark Dellefave and Eldon Hard get fifth place in the 4×400 relay in 3:50.46, while the Wildcats got seventh (1:42.48) in the 4×200 relay.
In field events, Solvay’s Frank Pucello threw the shot put 43’10” and finished fifth. Marcellus’ Mike Abbott was seventh in the pole vault, clearing 10 feet, while teammate Michael Provvidenti was ninth in the long jump, going 17’9 ½”.
