With Section III championships already secured, the Fayetteville-Manlius and Jamesville-DeWitt boys indoor track and field teams wanted to follow up with league titles a week later.
But neither the Hornets nor Red Rams could quite pull it off, finishing second in their respective divisions Wednesday in those league meets at SRC Arena.
F-M, in the CNY Counties League National division, picked up 128 points, sliding into second place because Liverpool, led by Ryheim Lawes (who won the 55 and 300-meter sprints, plus the long jump), won with 132 points.
Andrew Berge’ and Peter Ryan went 1-2 in the 3,200-meter run, with Berge’ prevailing in 9:21.69 and Ryan (9:22.80) right behind. Bryce Millar made his way to first place in the mile in 4:28.65, with Ryan (4:35.11) in third place.
Millar dropped a close 1,000-meter race to Liverpool’s Alex Christensen, finishing in 2:34.47 to Christensen’s 2:34.44, with Kyle Barber (2:36.03) in third place. In the 600-meter run, Christensen again edged out an F-M runner, 1:25.53 to Barber’s 1:25.54, with Berge’ third in 1:27.39.
But F-M did win the 4×800 relay, where Millar, Berge’, Josh Hannan and Jon Abbott finished in 8:16.54 to edge Liverpool (8:16.67) at the wire. And the Hornets also won the 4×200, where Luke Jordan, Parker Noble, Hamza ElHabbal and Ed Cheathen finished in 1:36.53, more than two seconds ahead of Liverpool (1:38.54) at the line.
Barber gave the Hornets a first-place finish in the triple jump, going 40 feet 9 ¼ inches to edge Liverpool’s Mark Vanmarter (40’7”) for the title. Justin Jones, clearing 11’3”, got past C-NS’s Connor Osborne (11’) to win the pole vault.
Hannan, Noble, Cheathen and ElHabbal were second (3:37.10) to Cicero-North Syracuse (3:35.07) in the 4×400 relay. Cheathen (8.87 seconds) and Harbour (8.95 seconds) were fourth and fifth, respectively, in the 55-meter hurdles as Luke Jordan was fifth in the 55-meter dash. Kyle Bronson got a third-place shot put toss of 41’6 ½”, while Noble was fourth in the long jump, going 19’4 ¼” as Ben Testani (16’4”) was sixth.
Meanwhile, in the Onondaga High School League Division 1 meet, J-D’s total of 78 points was just behind Solvay (82 points) in an 11-team field. East Syracuse-Minoa, with 50 points, finished fifth.
Zach Liebmann continued to dominate the pole vault, clearing 13 feet 6 inches, with ESM’s Caiden Moynihan (10’6”) in fourth place. Liebmann also was second in the 300 in 38.52 seconds, just behind Solvay’s Nick Cometti (38.37 seconds), and third in the 55 sprint in 6.94 seconds, another race that Cometti won.
Rob Murphy won twice as, in 8.41 seconds, edged out ESM’s Jeremy McGrath (8.46 seconds) to win the 55 hurdles, with McGrath also second (19’ ½”) to Fowler’s Delee Williams (20’11”) in the long jump. In the high jump, Murphy cleared 6 feet to finish on top as Joe Murphy, fifth in that event (5’6”), got third place in the shot put, tossing it 42’2”.
Patrick Dye won the 3,200 for J-D with a time of 10:13.66, well clear of the field as ESM’s Matt Young (10:57.30) in fifth place. Dye also was third in the mile in 4:50.02, with Isaac Tupper gaining second place in 4:48.33. The Rams were sixth in the 4×400.
ESM got a win from Jesse Perrone in the 1,000, as his time of 2:42.42 was well clear of Fulton’s Jim Martin (2:46.23), with Nick Schug (2:48.76) sixth. Jake Barker was third (1:28.26) in the 600 and then joined Perrone, Schug and Jared Henry to win the 4×800 in 8:44.01, where J-D finished sixth. The Spartans were sixth in the 4×200.
Down in the OHSL Division 2 meet, CBA got 50 points to finish fifth out of 11 teams, winning three different events, including the shot put, where Connor Agnew threw it 44’6”, the only attempt that was better than 40 feet.
Jack Brower won the 1,000 in 2:41.77, well clear of Hannibal’s Ben Slate (2:45.50) in second, and was second (1:29.91) to Jordan-Elbridge’s Dylan Whittico (1:26.01) in the 600 as teammate Pat Fallon finished fifth in 1:32.61.
Tommy O’Connor needed exactly nine seconds to hold off J-E’s Zach Rink (9.10 seconds) and win the 55 hurdles. O’Connor joined Fallon, John Frasier (who was seventh in the shot put) and Brendan Keeney to finish third in the 4×400 in 3:58.76. Dominic Morganti was fourth (10:33.16) in the 3,200.
