Less than two weeks after Fayetteville-Manlius dazzled everyone by sweeping the Nike Cross Nationals in Oregon, it was time for the indoor track and field season to get underway.
Local teams, including F-M, made their first venture of the winter to SRC Arena, on the Onondaga Community College campus, to compete in the Jack Morse Kickoff Meet.
On the boys side last Wednesday night, F-M managed 29 points, tying Auburn and Skaneateles for fourth place, while Jamesville-DeWitt had 17 points for 10th place. East Syracuse-Minoa and CBA had 10 points apiece. Liverpool (65 points) beat Cicero-North Syracuse (57 points) for top honors.
The Hornets did prevail in the 4×400 relay, where Jules Ngadula, Ed Cheathen, Hamza El Habbal and Vincent Perry posted a time of three minutes, 44.15 seconds, well clear of runner-up Baldwinsville (3:46.28) and the field. F-M also was seventh in the 4×800 relay and ninth in the 4×200.
Individually, Patrick Perry was victorious for the Hornets in the 3,200-meter run, where his time of 10:04.53 crushed the field, leaving C-NS’s Chris Hannan (10:28.65) far back in second place. Jack Boltman finished seventh in 10:50.84.
Also, in the shot put, Kyle Bronson gave F-M a second-place finish, his top toss of 42 feet 8 inches topped only by Fulton’s Nick Reitz, who won with 44’6 ½”as Bronson’s teammate, Taylor Smach (39’7 ¼”), earned sixth place.
J-D’s Patrick Dye contended in the 1,000-meter run, finishing in 2:47.29, which put him in second place behind C-NS’s Andrew Bearkland, who won in 2:46.42. F-M had Sean Donlon take eighth place (2:51.25) and Ken Kaiser (2:51.27) finish ninth.
Dye’s teammate, Will Cote, went 38 feet 9 ½ inches in the triple jump, landing him in second place behind Solvay’s Isaiah Lee, who won in 39’7 ¼” and also claimed first place in the long jump. F-M’s Parker Noble settled into seventh place. Jesse Johnson was sixth in the high jump, clearing 5’6”.
All of ESM’s points came from Jeremy McGrath winning the 55-meter hurdles. The Spartans junior finished in 8.27 seconds, a comfortable margin ahead of Baldwinsville’s Evan Donhauser, who was second in 8.43 seconds. CBA’s Tommy O’Connor (9.07 seconds) was seventh. The Spartans saw Matt Young and Jared Henry finish seventh and eighth, respectively, in the mile.
And Tom SanGiacomo, by himself, produced CBA’s point total. He was third in the 55-meter dash in 6.87 seconds, even with Nottingham’s Shaheed Dickerson (who ran in a later heat) and inches behind Liverpool’s Brandon Mayfield (6.86 seconds) at the line. Later, SanGiacomo took fourth place in the 300-meter dash in 39.16 seconds, where McGrath finished 10th.
Brendan Keeney gave the Brothers a seventh-place finish in the 600-meter run in 1:33.66, where F-M’s Nick Sischo was eighth and David Blitz was 11th.