What wasn’t in question during Wednesday night’s Section III Class A indoor track and field championship meet at SRC Arena was that Jamesville-DeWitt was going to bring home a title. What was in doubt was whether the Red Rams would get one title – or two.
Having seen the girls side roll to first place with 153 points to runner-up Homer’s 70, J-D would witness a win in the boys meet, too, though that proved a lot closer.
The boys Red Rams, without a victory in any event, were steady everywhere, and rallied in the late events to get 72.5 points to overtake East Syracuse Minoa, who led most of the night, but had to settle for second with 61.5 points, just ahead of New Hartford (59 points) and Oswego (58 points).
J-D also got plenty of key points from relays, including the 4×400, where Joey Armenta, Will Rodriguez, Kellen Mulvilhill and David Fikhman went 3:53.23 to finish second to New Hartford (3:46.46), while ESM (3:58.54) had to settle for fifth place.
Later, Fikhman got sixth place in the 300-meter dash, and in the last race of the night, the 4×200 relay, he paired with Armenta, Nolan Roosa and Alex Le for another second-place finish in 1:39.36, inches behind Homer (1:39.28) for eight valuable points.
Individually for J-D, Le was third in the pole vault, clearing 10 feet 6 inches, with Roosa third in the high jump with a clearance of 5’8″ and Donaven Coughlin fifth in the long jump, going exactly 18 feet.
Jan Ramirez proved quite valuable, too, finishing second in the 55-meter dash in 6.93 seconds to Oswego’s Christian Cabanling (6.78 seconds) and also tying for fifth in the high jump before a second-place shot put throw of 40’11 1/4″ was complemented by Evan Baxter (38’7″) taking fifth place.
ESM made lots of noise in distance races, with Jim Kenyon winning the 1,000-meter run in 2:47.44 ahead of, among others, the Rams’ Patrick Dye (2:52.09) in fourth place. Matt Young took the mile in 4:40.89, but again Dye gave J-D points, finishing third in 4:52.90.
Also, Jeremy McGrath won the 55-meter hurdles in 7.80 seconds, with Isaiah Brooks third in 8.30 seconds to beat out Roosa (8.48 seconds) and J-D teammate Alex Carbacio (8.81 seconds), who were fourth and fifth, respectively. Brooks tied Roosa for fifth place in the high jump.
Jared Henry finished second in the 600-meter run in 1:32.58, where Armenta (1:34.03) was fourth. The Spartans’ Nick Berg finished third in the 3,200-meter run in 10:37.60 as Berg, Henry, Young and Kenyon were second (9:04.64) to New Hartford (8:49.80) in the 4×800 relay, with J-D fifth.
Just as they did all winter, J-D’s girls got big nights from sophomore Alexandria Payne and junior Hannah Butler, whose three victories apiece helped lay the groundwork for the team title rout.
In the 55 hurdles, Payne won in 8.90 seconds, the only time under nine seconds. Then she led a 1-2-3 J-D sweep in the 300, going 43.21 seconds to beat Alexia Carr (44.00 seconds) and Casey Keane (44.19 seconds) at the line.
Finally, in the high jump, Payne out-leaped the competition, clearing 5’2″ as no one else got above 4’10”, though ESM’s Jennah Ferrari was fourth, clearing 4’6″.
Meanwhile, Butler, in 3:03.24, pulled away from Megan Brown (3:28.52) in a 1-2 effort before she beat a larger field in the 1,500-meter run, finishing in 4:57.57 to the 5:02.17 posted by ESM’s Natalie Marra as Sophia Vinciguerra finished third (5:02.65) for the Rams.
J-D won the 4×800 relay, too, with Butler and Vinciguerra joined by Elena Haarer and Abigail Leavitt to post 10:29.72 as ESM saw Marra, Kassandra Burr, Katherine Jacobs and Melanie DeFeo finish third in 11:02.67.
In a sweep of the pole vault, Gabrielle Tanksley won, clearing 9’3″ to edge Sara Signorelli (9 feet) for the top spot. Mariah Williams chimed in with a winning shot put toss of 31’10 3/4″ as Jessica Pace was sixth behind the Spartans’ Lindsay Crego (28’9″) in fifth place.
Keane took second (1:41.98), right behind New Hartford’s Elizabeth Haddad (1:41.71), in the 600, while Elena Haarer was fourth in 1:43.42 and the Spartans’ Megan Vanderwarker got sixth place. Carr, Madelyn Spina, Mackenzie Maxam and Adobea Abdo rose to second place in the 4×200 in 1:56.03, again with the Spartans (2:01.47) sixth.
Abby Palin was third in the 3,000-meter run in 11:45.24, while J-D saw Keane, Spina, Allish McDevitt and Amanda Semmel get fourth place in the 4×400 relay in 4:32.66, where ESM was sixth in 4:48.08. Ciara Norris got sixth place in the long jump.
ESM did get a win from Mia Montgomery, who took the triple jump with a best attempt of 36’1″, more than two feet ahead of Fowler’s Anyesi Kamanda (33’10 1/4″). Montgomery also finished third in the 55 sprint in 7.84 seconds, beating out Carr (7.85 seconds) and Maxam (7.94 seconds), who were fourth and sixth, respectively.
