In as tight a contest as possible, Westhill/Bishop Ludden’s girls indoor track and field survived a pitched battle with Jamesville-DeWitt and emerged with the Section III Class A championship Tuesday night at SRC Arena.
Meanwhile, Laura Leff, Brianna Richardson and Abby Uczen combined for five victories for West Genesee’s girls, who finished second to Fayeteville-Manlius in the Class AA sectional meet.
When the Class A standings were finalized, Westhill/Ludden had 111 points, just one point ahead of J-D’s total of 110 points, but enough to finish on top.
Tatiana Monds, in the 55-meter dash, won in 7.48 seconds over Central Valley’s Liz Belfast (7.80 seconds), with Shelby Stack third in the 300-meter dash in 45.55 seconds. Stack also finished fourth (1:47.78) in the 600-meter run.
Annibel Coolican gave Westhill/Ludden a victory in the 1,000-meter run in 3:09.74, ahead of J-D’s Emilee Carpenter (3:13.18) as Caroline Coates (3:22.89) took fourth place. Coolican went on to finish second in the 1,500-meter run in 5:07.56, with Genny Corcoran third in 5:08.16, and Alaina Kenny and Erin Morrell finishing fifth and sixth, respectively.
Bella Sterly won the shot put, her toss of 34 feet ½ inch well clear of J-D’s Salwa ElHindi, who was second with 30’5 ¾”. Each point mattered, as in the 3,000-meter run, where J-D’s Hannah Butler won in 10:47.26, but Corcoran finished second in 11:07.55 and Alaina Kenny (11:13.01) was third.
Coolican, Coates, Morrell and Olivia Daigneau needed 10:22.06 to finish second to Homer (10:14.77) in the 4×800 relay, while Monds, Stack, Katherine Doherty and Natalie Jetter were second in the 4×200 relay in 1:54.25, where Mexico (1:52.03) prevailed. Daigneau, Jetter, Sam Toscano and Erin Christensen were third in the 4×400 relay in 4:31.20.
Noelle Coolican took third in the pole vault, clearing 7’6”, with Caroline Black fourth and Doherty fifth. Christensen was fifth in the high jump.
Moving to the Class AA side, West Genesee’s total of 75 points beat everyone in the Class AA field except F-M (142 points), largely because Leff and Richardson made their way to the top.
In the 3,000, Leff prevailed in 10:27.54 over F-M’s Jenna Farrell, who was second in 10:31.30. Then, in the 1,500, Leff needed 4:48.36 to fend off the Hornets’ Alana Pearl (4:51.08) and the field. In the 4×800, Leff, Lindsay Weaver, Carly Benson and Elise Dunshee were second in 9:55.56, not far from F-M’s winning time of 9:50.658.
Moving to the 55-meter hurdles, Richardson won with a time of 8.94 seconds, beating out Rome Free Academy’s Mariah Johnson (9.08 seconds) and the field. Then, in the triple jump, Richardson went 34’10” to hold off F-M’s Christabel Ezidiegwu (34’7 ¾”), and she added a second-place long jump of 16’ ¾”, trailing only Cicero-North Syracuse’s Javielle Fanizzi (16’11 ½”).
Uczen dominated the pole vault, clearing 9 feet 9 inches as no other competitor could get past 7’6”. Benson got to fourth in the 1,000 in 3:06.06, while Maria Matkoski was sixth in the 600. The Wildcats were also fourth in the 4×400 relay in 4:23.45.
Neither local side could replicate this sort of performance in the boys sectional meets that same night as Westhill/Ludden got third place in the Class A meet with 59 points and West Genesee finished with 28 points for seventh place in Class AA.
Westhill/Ludden’s Anthony Pecoriello won the shot put with a toss of 45’2”, while teammate Eddie Kernan was third (39’6 ½”), Franco Tangredi fifth and Jack Sweeney sixth. Vincenzo Carr took third place in the 1,000 in 2:48.21.
On the relay side, Westhill/Ludden saw Chris Pullano, Donovan Whipple, Tyler King and Richie Easterly finish second (1:42.70) to Homer (1:41.17) in the 4×200, as the Warriors also rose to third in the 4×400 in 4:09.30 and got third place (9:13.69) in the 4×800, too.
Dan DeMauro grabbed fourth place in the mile in 4:51 flat. Josh Owens got sixth place in the 3,200-meter run, with Jake Etoll and Brian King fifth and sixth, respectively, in the 600. Chris Marnell was sixth in the 55 hurdles. John Ringwood and Chris Pullano tied for fifth in the pole vault and Tyler King was fifth (17’11”) in the long jump.
In its specialty, the 4×800, West Genesee won the Class AA race as Nate Conroy, Jack Erhard, Sean Beney and Kal Strickland finished in 8:20.35, with F-M (8:24.06) in second place. Ejay Harrell joined in when he cleared 5’10” for third place in the high jump.
Jack Erhard ran the 600 in 1:27.85 and finished fourth, while Logan McAnulty was sixth. David Leff was fifth in the 3,200 in 9:55.53, with Nate Conroy fifth in the 1,000 and Sean Beney fifth in the mile. The Wildcats were sixth in the 4×400.
