An exciting 600-meter run that featured a sweep of the top two spots from Katie Wicks and Marissa Lathrop highlighted the Baldwinsville indoor track and field team’s efforts during Wednesday night’s Section III state qualifying meet at Onondaga Community College’s SRC Arena.
Like many of the sprints on this night, the 600 proved a close battle. Wicks, a junior, and Lathrop, a senior, fought for the lead with Cicero-North Syracuse’s Jilliann Norris and Mexico’s Hunter Gowans throughout the race.
Then, in the final 100 meters, Wicks and Lathrop made their moves to the front and held on for their 1-2 sweep. Wicks won in one minute, 41.26 seconds, while Lathrop was second in 1:41.42, each of them edging out Norris (1:41.48) for berths in the March 7 state meet at Cornell University.
Arden Kellner also advanced to the state meet in the boys edition of the 600. in a time of 1:24.96, Kellner finished third behind Auburn’s Leon Atkins (1:22.45) and Liverpool’s Dan Muldoon (1:23.67), but that proved good enough to advance. Kellner will also run in the intersection relay at Cornell.
In many other races, B’ville nearly finished on top, especially the girls 4×200 relay. Lathrop, paired with Rebecca Lawrence, Haliey Couchman and freshman Anna Demer, finished in 1:51.74, exactly one-hundredth of a second behind Skaneateles and its top time of 1:51.73.
Evan Donhauser was the top qualifier for the boys 55-meter hurdles final in 8.06 seconds, but though he improved to 8.02 seconds in the final, East Syracuse Minoa’s Jeremy McGrath beat him with 8.02 seconds. Both Donhauser and McGrath advanced to the state meet.
The Bees also were a runner-up in the 4×400 relay, where Wicks, Couchman, Lawrence and Lathrop ran hard and posted 4:06.46, but could not quite catch Liverpool, who won in 4:03.61.
On the boys side, B’ville began the day by seeing Brennan LaQue, Andrew Carter, Evan Vannatta and Kieran Sheriden go 3:34.12 in the 4×400, second behind Skaneateles (3:30.38) at the line. Then Sheriden, Sam Mahar, Alex Anselment and Martin Sak were third (1:36.70) in the 4×200.
In between those relays, the Bees offered the lone challenge to Fayetteville-Manlius in the 4×800, with Kellner, Dan Conlon, Joey Frink and eighth-grader Adam Davis posting 8:35.88, well behind the Hornets’ 8:12.56.
Right after that, in the 55-meter final, Mahar was third in 6.83 seconds, beaten out by Nottingham’s Shaheed Bashar-Dickerson (6.72 seconds) and Mexico’s Kyler Fenton (6.75 seconds).
Couchman was fourth in the girls long jump, going 16 feet 11 ¼ inches, while Haleigh Jaquint went 34’ ¼” in the triple jump to take fifth place. Maizy Ludden made her way to fifth place in the girls 3,000-meter run in 11:02.61.
