Onondaga — Carly Benson’s swift victory in the 1,000-meter run, combined with strong performances in all of the relays, helped the West Genesee girls indoor track and field team claim third place in Wednesday night’s Section III Class AA championship meet at SRC Arena.

By meet’s end, the Wildcats had 66 points, a number topped only by Fayeteville-Manlius, who won with 108.5 points, and Cicero-North Syracuse, who was second with 83 points.

In the 1,000, Benson needed two minutes, 55.23 to prevail in a race where F-M’s Sophie Ryan provided a strong challenge, but finished second in 2:58.54. Later, in the 1,500-meter run, Benson claimed fifth place in 4:58.44.

WG finished second in the 4×400 relay, where Kendall Dombroske, Kelsey Fox, Madalyn Benson and Maria Matkoski finished in 4:12.15, just behind C-NS, who won in 4:11.41. This was before Matkoski gained second place in the 600-meter run in 1:39.05 behind Ryan, who won in 1:37.91 for the Hornets, as Benson got seventh in the 55-meter hurdles.

Moving to the 4×800 relay, Matkoski, Dombroske, Emily Young and Mia Mitchell had a strong showing, going 10:04.58 to hold off C-NS (10:05.98) for the runner-up spot, though F-M pulled away and won in 9:30.83. Then, in the 4×200, Fox, Delia, Carly Benson and Shelby Kiteveles got third place in 1:50.38, ahead of everyone except Rome Free Academy (1:48.35) and Corcoran (1:49.50).

Going to field events, J’Nazia Anderson gave WG a second-place finish in the shot put, her best throw of 33 feet 11 ¼ inches topped only by C-NS’s Kierrah Butler (36’5”). Megan Delia had a fourth-place triple jump of 34 feet as Michela Kashay tied for ninth in the high jump, clearing 4’6”.

Also, Delia made it to third place in the 300-meter dash in 42.74 seconds. Emily Young finished third in the 3,000-meter run in 10:32.11, just behind F-M’s Claire Walters (10:31.09) in the runner-up spot.

continued — On the boys end, West Genesee had 18 points in the sectional AA meet, finishing eighth in the 11-team field. David Leff had the Wildcats’ best individual finish, in the mile, where he posted a time of 4:28.56 as Liverpool’s Ben Petrella prevailed in 4:23.22.

But the Wildcats almost won the 4×800 as Leff, paired with Sean Byrnes, Hunter Buza and Russ Graziano, gained a time of 8:36.72, just behind Liverpool’s winning 8:34.41. On his own, Graziano got fifth place in the 600-meter run in 1:29.95.

Ryan Dunning had a sixth-place time of 10:05.19 in the 3,200-meter run, while Mark Kopp, Chris Petosa, Mark Dellefave and Esisas Brunfield were sixth (3:50.08) in the 4×400. Petosa, Kopp, Dellefave and Brunfield took seventh place in the 4×200 in 1:41.83.