A near-sweep of the field events, combined with plenty of success on the 200-meter oval, allowed the Solvay boys indoor track and field team to pull away from Jordan-Elbridge and earn the Section III Class B championship Thursday night at SRC Arena.
All told, the Bearcats picked up 118 points, while the Eagles, with 74 points, managed to edge Clinton (73 points) for the runner-up spot. Marcellus, with 22 points, settled for eighth place.
Josh Marotti launched Solvay toward victory, as in the 55-meter hurdles he went 8.68 seconds, with no one else breaking nine seconds. Marcellus’ Noah Townsend was third, in 9.16 seconds, with J-E’s Zach Rink fourth (9.17 seconds) and Bearcats teammate Josh Chrysler fifth in 9.37 seconds.
In the pole vault, Marotti and Phoenix’s Andy Padula both cleared 12 feet, Marotti did so with fewer misses and earned first-place points as teammate Dan Hatch was fifth and J-E’s Jacob Patterson was sixth.
Moving to the long jump, Nick Cometti won with a top leap of 19’1”, while Garrett Lee was third (18’8 ¾”) and Isaiah Lee (18’3 ¼”) was fifth. Moving to the triple jump, Solvay got 18 more points as Isaiah Lee was second with a top effort of 40’2 ¼” to Padula (41’2 ½”), with Owen Ryan getting third place in 39’11 ¾” and Marotti (38’8 ¼”) fourth.
Frank Pucello added a second-place shot put toss of 44’ ½” to finish exactly one foot behind CBA’s Connor Agnew (45’ ½”) as Jacob Hook (41’3 ½” was fourth. Pucello cleared 5’2” in the high jump and finished fourth, while Townsend, clearing 5’6”, was second to Phoenix’s Eric Hillpot (5’8”), as J-E’s Nate Hollis also topped 5’6” but settled for third place.
Moving to the track, Cometti earned a victory in the 55-meter dash, his time of 6.73 seconds well clear of J-E’s Dylan Whittico (6.96 seconds), who got second place, as Ryan was fourth in 7.09 seconds. Ryan, joining Garrett Lee, Isaiah Lee and Eric Goodrich, was second (1:39.39) to Skaneateles (1:37.47) in the 4×200 relay.
During the 300-meter dash, Cometti, in 38.39 seconds, was third, and Goodrich was second in 38.35 seconds behind Skaneateles’ Connor Hill (37.34 seconds) as Patterson (39.44 seconds) gave the Eagles a fourth-place effort. Goodrich added a third-place time of 1:27.86 in the 600-meter run.
J-E saw Jack Gugel win twice by big margins. First, in the 3,200-meter run, Gugel finished in 10:05.03, more than 10 seconds clear of the field, as teammate Hunter Brunelle (11:05.27) made his way to fifth place.
Then Gugel went 4:45.69 in the mile for a second title, comfortably ahead of Clinton’s Jack Yaworsky (4:50.91), as Marcellus’ Alex Stopen (5:01.02) was fourth. To top off his day, Gugel, joining Patterson, Whittico and Hollis, went 9:05.78 in the 4×800 relay to win over Clinton (9:14.86) by more than nine seconds.
Dylan Whittico was second in the 600 in 1:26.39, only trailing CBA’s Jack Brower (1:25.38), Hollis, in 2:47.67, was second to Hannibal’s Ben Slate (2:44.12) in the 1,000-meter run, with the Mustangs’ Pat McGuane (2:50.47) fourth and Austin Milton sixth. The Eagles also took sixth in the 4×400 relay.
Amid all this, the girls sectional Class B meet saw Marcellus, led by Rachel Garn, get 37 points to finish fourth, while J-E and Solvay each had 22 points. Cazenovia prevailed with 128.5 points.
Garn inched away from Hannibal’s Reilly Harris late to win the 1,000 in 3:23.21, with Harris (3:24.50) in second place. Then, in the 1,500-meter run, Garn again dueled with Skaneateles’ Kaitlyn Neal and again came out on top, winning in 4:51.51 to Neal’s 4:52.04.
J-E got nearly half its points from Abby Gugel winning the 600, her time of 1:43.52 well clear of Cazenovia’s Samantha Gates (1:48.50) and the field. Gugel, Julie Hines, Mary-Elizabeth Dristle and Antonia Malvaso were third in the 4×800 in 10:33.91.
Solvay’s best finish came in the long jump, where Nicole Antonacci went 15’8 ¾”, trailing only Phoenix’s Haylie Virgnia, who won with 16’4”. Angela Frateschi was fifth (10.13 seconds) in the 55 hurdles and helped Antonacci, Hannah Haywood and Christiana Marotti finish third in the 4×200 in 1:59.38, with J-E (2:03.24) fifth.
For the Mustangs, Suzanna Sylcox threw the shot put 31’6”, finishing second to Skaneateles’ Alana Navaroli (31’9 ½”), while Solvay’s Samantha Waters (29’6 ½”) was third. Marcellus’ Mary-Catherine Coon was third in the high jump, clearing 4’8”.
Elsewhere, J-E was fourth in the 4×400 relay in 4:45.02, with Marcellus (4:51.51) in fifth place. The Mustangs’ Abby Fallon was sixth in the 55 sprint, just ahead of Hines in seventh place.
