All of the top names for the Baldwinsville indoor track and field teams made their way back to SRC Arena for Wednesday’s Section III state qualifying meet.
With berths in this Saturday’s state championships at Cornell University’s Barton Hall on the line (two for each individual event), the Bees did not disappoint, winning several events, including two of the girls relays.
In the 4×400 to open the meet, B’ville’s quartet of Ciera Allen, Marissa Lathrop, Katie Wicks and Hailey Couchman crossed the finish line in four minutes, 1.48 seconds, just enough to hold off Fayetteville-Manlius (4:02.23) and claim the top spot.
Later, the Bees also won the 4×200 with Elise Siefritz joining Allen, Lathrop and Couchman as, in 1:48.70, B’ville again prevailed by less than a second over F-M (1:49.53). Later, B’ville decided that it would enter the state meet in the 4×400, but not the 4×200.
Lathrop, on her own, finished second (1:41.40) to Homer’s Jade Auchmoody (1:40.32) in the 600-meter run, but decided to focus all of her energy on the 4×400 and will not run in the 600 during the state meet.
Senior Emily Soeder is going to the state meet in the high jump. Clearing 5 feet 2 inches, Soeder easily settled into second place, and cheered like everyone else when the winner, East Syracuse-Minoa’s Nina Zesky, set a new personal best by clearing 5’6”.
Meanwhile, in the boys state qualifier, Josh Perez earned a spot in the state meet by finishing second in the 600-meter run. In a time of 1:25.48, Perez beat everyone in the field except CBA’s Jack Brower, who prevailed in 1:24.68.
Getting close to a state meet berth, Jack Martin finished third in the 1,000-meter run, getting to a time of 2:38.18, trailing only Liverpool’s Alex Christensen (2:33.10) and Hannibal’s Ben Slate, who was second in 2:36.90.
Couchman finished ninth in the long jump with a top leap of 14’9 ¼”, while Maria Diamond cleared 7’6” in the pole vault to tie for 10th place.
On the boys side, the Bees’ 4×400 relay quartet of Perez, Jeff Mahar, Brian Mahar and Dan Walker claimed third place, in 3:38.49, as Cicero-North Syracuse won in 3:31.15, edging out Fayetteville-Manlius (3:31.60) for the top spot.
B’ville also ran in the 4×400 relay as Evan Donhauser, Sam Mahar, Brian Mahar and Dan Walker made their way to fourth place in 1:38.78 as Rome Free Academy (1:35.60) took the top spot. Brennan LaQue, Andrew Carter, Arden Kellner and Joey Frink were fifth (8:47.63) in the 4×800 relay.
Donhauser attemped to qualify for the finals in the 55-meter hurdles, but fell in his heat and was unable to finish, though he got up and walked away, unhurt. Sam Mahar was seventh in the 55-meter dash in 6.87 seconds.
