When it comes to high school running in Central New York, regardless of the season, it usually involves chasing Fayetteville-Manlius and not catching up.
But the Baldwinsville boys track and field team defied those terms on Wednesday afternoon at Pelcher-Arcaro Stadium as, led by senior Brian Mahar, the Bees defeated the Hornets 72-69.
In order for the Bees to counter F-M’s well-chronicled advantage in distance running, it had to be sharp elsewhere, from sprints to field events to relays.
Mahar provided the spark on two of those fronts in cold, windy conditions. During the 100-meter dash, Mahar made his way to first place in 11.4 seconds. And he also prevailed in the 200-meter dash, getting the victory in 23.8 seconds.
More important was Mahar’s contributions to relays, where the points helped B’ville go in front. Mahar, joining Dan Walker, David Mazurkiewicz and Dante Giannino, managed a first-place finish in the 4×100 relay in 47.1 seconds in between the winning sprints.
Then, in the 4×400 relay, Jeff Mahar joined Brian Mahar, along with Walker and Brennan LaQue, as B’ville, in three minutes, 34 seconds, turned back F-M for the winning points.
Though the Hornets prevailed in four of six field events, B’ville senior Josh Perez sneaked in with a victory in the discus with at throw of 98 feet, while junior Alex Anselment cleared 5 feet 4 inches in the high jump for another title.
To win, the Bees overcame a combined five wins from Kyle Barber and Bryce Millar. Barber prevailed in the 400-meter dash (51.2 seconds), 400-meter hurdles (58.2 seconds) and triple jump (38’9 1/2″), while Millar ran 800 meters in 2:07 flat and took the mile in 4:37.43.
As this went on, B’ville’s girls track team lost, 106-35, to F-M, but still managed a quartet of individual victories, two of them from junior Rebecca Lawrence, who like Brian Mahar would sweep through the sprints, winning the 100 in 13.1 seconds and the 200 in 27.9 seconds.
Moving to throwing events, Carlie McNamara had a top discus throw of 91’6″, while Rachael Miller gained first place in the shot put, heaving it 26’5″. Christabel Ezidegwu led F-M, earning four titles in the high jump (4’6″), triple jump (34’1 1/2″), long jump (15’6″) and 100-meter hurdles (17.6 seconds).
B’ville’s girls would go on to compete in Saturday’s Skaneateles-Marcellus Invitational, where Lawrence would prevail in the 100, qualifying first in 13.57 seconds, and then improving to 13.46 in the finals to beat Skaneateles’ Amanda Wetmore (13.54 seconds) as Lawrence’s teammate, Randi Bort, was seventh in 13.95 seconds.
Marissa Lathrop took third place in the 1,500 in 5:17.23, with Mia Bolton fourth in 5:18.14. Cierra Allen needed 1:00.16 to get to third in the 400-meter dash, just ahead of Katie Wicks (1:01.03) in the fourth spot, with Allen fourth (27.21 seconds) and Lawrence fifth (27.22 seconds) in the 200.
Rachael Miller, in 2:28.38, got to fourth place in the 800-meter run, later finishing eighth (28’ 1 ¾”), ahead of McNamara (26’9”), in the shot put.
For her part, McNamara threw the discus exactly 91 feet to rise to third place In that event. Brittany LaRock cleared 7’6” to finish fifth in the pole vault as the Bees were also eighth in the 4×800 relay in 11:13.57.
