Though weather caused all kinds of upheaval with various area track and field teams, a few meets took place before and after the worst of the rain.
West Genesee, for example, had its meet with Henninger postponed, but the Wildcats still had a strong week thanks to its work in two different high-profile meets on Friday afternoon.
Getting wins from Brianna Richardson and Abby Uczen, WG’s girls picked up 63 points in the Chittenango Invitational, where Fayetteville-Manlius won with 131 points and Baldwinsville (100.33 points) finished second.
Brianna Richardson, in the five-event pentathlon, blew away the field. Winning three of five events, Richardson accumulated 2,448 points, well clear of Cicero-North Syracuse’s Brittany House (2,180 points) and the rest of the field.
As for Uczen, she again prevailed in the pole vault, clearing 9 feet 3 inches, just three inches short of her season-best total, to edge Jamesville-DeWitt’s Brooke DeRobertrs (9 feet) and the field. Melissa Bakowski, clearing 4’8” in the high jump, was second to B’ville’s Emily Soeder (5’2”), J’Nazia Anderson was third in the shot put, heaving it 29’4”.
On the oval, Carly Benson participated in the day’s biggest race, the Fleet Feet Mile, and in a time of 5:16.16 the eighth-grader finished sixth, quite respectable, with teammate Lindsay Weaver 10th in 5:29.09. F-M’s Annika Avery won in 4:55.55.
WG’s 4×800 relay team of Maria Matkoski, Sarah Sveen, Delaney Nolan and Madeline Lowry finished second (10:48.99) to F-M (9:34.93). Bakowski, Allison Iles, Carly Benson and Valerie Pirro were third in the 4×400 relay in 4:15.40.
Valerie Pirro, in a time of 1:10.85, made her way to third place in the 400 hurdles, with Elise Dunshee fourth in the 3,000-meter run (11:29.29) and Matkoski fourth (2:25.54) in the 800-meter run. Rachel Whiting and Grace Craig were sixth and seventh, respectively, in the 2,000-meter steeplechase.
While all that was going on, WG’s boys went to Friday’s New Hartford Invitational and, with 52 points, finished fourth as Cicero-North Syracuse (95 points) took the top spot.
In the 800-meter run, the Wildcats went 1-2, as Jack Erhard beat the field with a time of two minutes, 1.21 seconds, beating out teammate Logan McAnulty, who was second in 2:03.22. Kal Strickland, in 2:05.80, finished fourth.
Nate Conroy gave WG anther victory in the mile, as his time of 4:29.78 put him more than five seconds ahead of Utica Proctor’s Zackaria Adam (4:34.97) at the line.
Ejay Harrell, clearing 6 feet in the high jump, tied for second place. Mike Lannon finished fourth in the 400-meter dash in 53.95 seconds. The Wildcats also took fourth place in both the 1,600 sprint medley relay (3:58.66) and distance medley relay (11:54.44), and fifth place in the 4×100 relay in exactly 47 seconds.
