Onondaga — From the very first race of the evening, indoor track athletes from West Genesee had reason to smile during last Wednesday night’s Section III state qualifying meet at SRC Arena.

For it was in the girls 4×400 relay that the Wildcats’ quartet of Carly Benson, Maria Matkoski, Kendall Dombroske and Megan Delia posted a time of four minutes, 2.77 seconds that broke the WG school record and beat runner-up Cicero-North Syracuse (4:08.74) by nearly six seconds.

That alone meant the Wildcats will have ample representation during this Saturday’s state championship meet at Cornell University’s Barton Hall, but Benson added to that win total in the 1,000-meter run, going 2:57.86 to hold off Liverpool’s Juliana Basla (2:59.70) for the top spot.

Also, with a second-place finish in the 600-meter run in 1:37.93 behind Fayetteville-Manlius’ Sophia Ryan (1:35.97), Matkoski advanced to the state meet in that event, as did David Leff in the boys mile, where he was second in 4:26.01 to the winning 4:25.77 posted by F-M’s Bryan Geehrer. Dombroske was 11th (1:43.62) in the 600, well back of Matkoski and Ryan.

Another victory was earned by Jordan-Elbridge senior Abby Gugel in the girls 1,500-meter run, where she blazed to a time of 4:50.28, comfortably ahead of Basla (4:53.67), who again finished second. The Eagles’ Julie Hines was 14th in the 55-meter dash in 7.85 seconds.

In the boys long jump, Westhill-Bishop Ludden’s Alex Kiley got within two inches of a victory, as his best leap of 21’6” topped everyone except Skaneateles’ Tommy Hagen, who won by going 21’8”. Then, in the triple jump, Kiley finished third, going 42’5” as Central Valley Academy’s Zach Crim won with 44’10 ¼”.

Westhill-Ludden’s Katherine Doherty cleared 10 feet in the pole vault, second only to Central Square’s Bethany Cripps, who won by topping 11 feet. Noelle Coolican was sixth, topping 8’6”, with Katie De Veyra (8 feet) 10th. Corcoran, Annibel Coolican, Alaina Kenny and Olivia Daigneau gained fourth place in the 4×800 relay in 10:25.03.

continued — In the boys pole vault, the Warriors had yet another runner-up finish from Bryan King, who cleared 12 feet, but watched Clinton’s Avery Crosley top 13 feet to win it. J-E’s Brad Marshall was sixth in the shot put with a throw of 41’ ¼”.

West Genesee saw J’Nazia Anderson finish third in the shot put, throwing it 34 feet ½ inch to trail Cicero-North Syracuse teammates Destiny Monica (36’9 ¾”) and Kierrah Butler (34’4 ½”).

Anderson was just ahead of Solvay sophomore Ashley Bosco, who was fourth with a throw of 33’2 ¼” as Samantha Waters (29’7 ½”) got eighth place. Kelsey Fox finished sixth in the 300-meter dash in 44.80 seconds and help Benson, Delia and Matkoski take fourth place in the 4×200 relay in 1:50.36. Delia had a sixth-place triple jump of 33’7 ¼”.

Emily Young gave WG a seventh-place finish in the 3,000-meter run in 10:56.21, with Westhill-Ludden teammates Haylei Coolican and Genny Corcoran 12th and 14th respectively, all of them far back of F-M’s Kaitlyn Neal, who shattered her own sectional record with a state-best 9:28.59.

Doherty did not reach the finals in the 55 hurdles, where she was 11th in 9.65 seconds. Westhill-Ludden also had eighth-grader Liz Kessler finish seventh in the 1,500 (5:04.26) behind Gugel, while Bryan King was seventh in the boys 55 hurdles in 8.35 seconds.

Marcellus junior Sean Raymond contended in the high jump, clearing 6 feet, but finishing second overall as Oswego’s Kyle Crossman won, clearing 6’2”. In the 600, Patrick McGuane, in a time of 1:26.19, McGuane was just behind Tully’s Kyle Berardi (1:25.88) for the runner-up spot, though Syracuse ITC’s Solomon Lawrence pulled away to win in 1:23.19.

The Mustangs also had McGuane, Matt Strempel, Joe Riccardi and Sean Raymond rise to fourth place in the 4×800 relay in 8:51.63, while West Genesee, featuring Leff, Ryan Dunning, Russ Graziano and Sean Byrnes, took sixth place in 8:55.13.

continued — On the girls side for Marcellus, Mary-Catherine Coon tied for fifth in the girls high jump, clearing 4’10” as Grace Coon (4’8”) was 11th. Mike Provvidenti finished eighth in the 300 sprint in 38.50 seconds, with J-E’s Ethan Kinney 10th in 38.56 seconds.

Solvay’s quartet of Jordan Devereaux, Tony Matysuk, Colton Francemone and Garrett Lee got third place in the 4×200 relay in 1:38.01, not far from Cicero-North Syracuse’s winning time of 1:35.24. That same quartet was also sixth in the 4×400 relay in 3:46.42.

Katie Harrington cleared 4’10” in the girls high jump and tied for fifth place, while also taking 10th place (32’4 ¾”) in the triple jump.