As the schedule fell, each of West Genesee’s track and field teams would get a big test last Monday afternoon when it hosted a three-way meet that featured both the Liverpool Warriors and Baldwinsville Bees.
Led again by Carly Benson, the girls Wildcats earned a split, defeating B’ville 82-55, but taking an 82.5-57.5 defeat to Liverpool, with Carly Benson again claiming a pair of races to lead WG.
Benson went from winning the 400 hurdles in one minute, 10.88 seconds to the 800-meter run where, minutes later, she won in 2:20.37. Maria Matkoski went 1:02.18 to take the 400-meter dash, with Emily Young winning the 3,000-meter run 10:39.69.
Megan Delia unleashed a winning triple jump of 32 feet 8 inches, while J’Nazia Anderson claimed the shot put with a toss of 30’10”. Liverpool was led by Alexis Bittel, who was first in the 100-meter hurdles in 17.07 seconds and won the long jump by going 15’5”.
Each of West Genesee’s boys teams would struggle in defeats to B’ville (101-40) and Liverpool (103-38), with the Warriors sweeping distance races and relays, while the Bees controlled the sprints and most field events.
But there was one exception – the discus, where WG’s Evan Tuthill won a close contest with a throw of 115 feet 6 inches. He was four inches ahead of Liverpool’s Andrew Stonebarger, who heaved it 115’2”.
WG went from this meet to taking on Cicero-North Syracuse on Wednesday afternoon, and the girls meet turned into a thriller, with each point an important one as the Wildcats’ bid fell just short in a 67-65 defeat to the Northstars.
Delia and Emily Young each won two individual events. In the 200, Delia prevailed in 27.99 seconds, following it up with a first-place long jump of 14’10” as Young went 2:31.8 in the 800 and also was first in the 1,500-meter run in 5:03.5.
Carly Benson went 10:49.2 in the 3,000 and Madalyn Benson took the 400 hurdles in 1:12.3 as Matkoski won the 400 sprint in 1:01.83. WG also won two of three relays as Young, Matkoski, Kelsey Fox and Kendall Dombroske took the 4×400 in 4:19.96 and Mia Mitchell joined Young, Matkoski and Dombroske to claim the 4×800 in 10:15.15.
In the more lopsided boys meet, WG lost, to C-NS. 107-25, but still had Leff roar to first place in the 800 in 2:03.3 and Tuthill improve his discus throw to 121’6” and win there. Andrew Berry had a victory in the 200 in 24.21 seconds as Ed Mahana led the Northstars, winning the 110 (15.90 seconds) and 400 (1:00.38) hurdles.
Shaking this off, WG’s boys went to Friday’s New Hartford Invitational and, led by Leff, tied for seventh in a 22-team field with 33 points, while Marcellus got 18 points and Solvay earned six points –and C-NS, with 118 points, finished on top.
Leff ended up dueling with the Mustangs’ Patrick McGuane in the 800, and Leff took the title in two minutes, 1.47 seconds as McGuane, in 2:03.80, settled for second place and his teammate, Matt Strempel, was fifth in 2:04.82. But Leff didn’t stop there, going to the mile and needing 4:25.01 to fend off Niskayuna’s Charlie Ragone (4:25.96) and claim another title.
WG’s 1,600 sprint medley relay team of Mark Dellefave, Andrew Barry, Hunter Buza and Mark Kopp went 3:51.21, getting into second place behind Liverpol’s 3:49.49. Evan Tuthill threw the discus 125’2” and got fourth place, while Peter Bowman cleared 11 feet in the pole vault for sixth place.
Aside from McGuane, Marcellus also got a runner-up placement from Sean Raymond in the high jump, where he cleared 5’10” to top everyone except C-NS’s George Reader, who won with 6’2”. Sam Stearns was seventh (10’6”) in the pole vault behind Bowman as Solvay’s Colton Francemone was third in the 400 hurdles in 59.13 seconds.
A day later, it was the girls turn at Rome Free Academy’s Copper City Invitational. West Genesee got 56 points to finish fourth and Marcellus, with 24 points, claimed seventh place as Bethlehem (Section II) won with 107 points.
In the 4×400 relay, WG prevailed as Dombroske, Delia, Matkoski and Carly Benson went 4:05.02 to finish more than four seconds ahead of the field. Fox joined Matkoski, Delia and Benson as the Wildcats prevailed in the 1,600 sprint medley in 4:11.58, routing the field as runner-up Bethlehem (4:33.87) was more than 20 seconds behind – and this following a third-place finish in the 4×100 in 53.12 seconds.
Young was second in the 3,000 in 10:34.53, just behind Whitesboro’s Justyna Wilkinson (10:32.92), with Sara Ferranti sixth in 11:24.62. Madalyn Benson needed 1:10.79 to finish second to Bethlehem’s Julia Nugent (1:06.40) in the 400 hurdles, and also earned fifth place in the 100 hurdles in 17.71 seconds.
Dombroske needed 8:10.03 for third place in the 2,000-meter steeplechase, while Delia had a sixth-place triple jump of 32’3 ½”. J’Nazia Anderson stepped up in the shot put, gaining fourth place with a top heave of 31’7”.
For Marcellus, Johanna Sylcox beat Anderson in the shot put, her best throw of 33’7 ½” tying C-NS’s Kierrah Butler for second place as RFA’s Sarah Crockett won with a heave of 36’10 ¼”. Morgan Gould, Tora Fey, Eeva Kortesoja and Emma Garn were fourth in the 4×800 relay in 10:53.85.
Also for the Mustangs, Mary-Catherine Coon roared to third place in the 200 in 27.65 seconds and got a fourth-place finish in the 100 sprint in 13.45 seconds, finishing her strong day with a fourth-place high jump clearance of 4’10”.
