From Tom SanGiacomo in the sprints to Dominic Morganti in distance races, Christian Brothers Academy’s boys track and field team made a big impact in last Wednesday’s Onondaga High School League Liberty division championship meet at Marcellus.
All told, the Brothers picked up 86 points, rising all the way to second place in the 10-team field behind Westhill-Bishop Ludden, who won with 135 points.
SanGiacomo first triumphed in the 100-meter dash, where in 11.19 seconds he pulled away from Cazenovia’s Alec Boone (11.52 seconds) after going 11.23 seconds in the preliminary round. Zach Walsh finished fifth in 11.65 seconds.
Then, in the 200-meter dash, SanGiacomo roared to a time of 22.80 seconds, nearly a second ahead of Boone (23.57 seconds), while Walsh improved his position to third place in 23.84 seconds.
Morganti began his big day in the mile, where in a time of 4:34.61 he held off Westhill-Ludden’s Garnet Remillard (4:39.74) as Will Bianchi got eighth place for the Brothers. In the 3,200-meter run, Morganti, with twice the distance, won by a bigger margin, going 10:03.87 as Marcellus’ Joe Riccardi (10:44.04) was more than half a minute back and CBA’s Dan Melvin (11:33.08) was ninth.
Yet another win came from the 4×100 relay, where the Brothers’ quartet of Brett VanPatten, Jake VanPatten, Gavin Collins and Jaden Mitchell went 46.08 seconds to hold off Altmar-Parish-Williamstown (46.24 seconds) at the finish line.
Pat Carey, in the 110 high hurdles, roared to a time of 16.30 seconds, finishing second behind APW’s Sage Bartlett (15.56 seconds), and Carey got fourth place in the 400-meter hurdles in 1:02.61 and 10th in the high jump. Brendn Keeney finished fourth in the 800-meter run in 2:08.62, with Mitchell fourth in the long jump, going 18’10 ½”.
Keeney, Melvin, Tim Schmitt and Josh Pucci were fifth in the 4×800 relay in 9:20.35. Schmitt finished eighth in the 400-meter dash in 56.34 seconds, with James Pavelchak ninth in 57.30 seconds.
Tyler Leonard, with a top triple jump of 36’ ¾”, was eighth as Shawn Moreth finished 12th. Riley Nash and Tom Culeton were 10th and 11th, respectively, in the 3,000-meter steeplechase, while Collins was 13th in the shot put and Sam Vercillo was 16th in the discus.
Meanwhile, the CBA girls team had plenty of individual wins, too, in its part of the OHSL Liberty meet at Marcellus, taking fourth place with 70 points. Only Cazenovia (146 points), Westhill-Ludden (117 points) and Skaneateles (95 points) did better.
Anna Schug, in 26.46 seconds, pulled away from Skaneateles’ Maddie Peterson (26.80 seconds) to win the 200, while Kiana Ferguson was seventh in 28.20 seconds. Ferguson did better in the long jump, where she went 15’11 ¼” to finish second, right behind Cazenovia’s Maddy Gavitt, who won with 16’1 ¾’.
Nafysa Williams was victorious in the high jump, the only athlete to clear 5 feet as no one else could do better than 4’10”. Elissa Kempisty challenged for the title in the triple jump, going 32’8 ¼” as, again, Gavitt won, going 33 feet.
CBA also won the 4×800 relay, where Lea Kyle, Claire Bargabos, Bri Pucci and Olivia Morganti went 10:05.47 to hold off Westhill-Ludden (10:08.66) and the rest of the field. In the 4×400, Schug, Pucci, Kate LaCasse and Ryleigh Peterson were second in 4:13.98 behind Skaneateles, who won in 4:19.29.
Ferguson, Peterson, LaCasse and Anna Langlois got CBA to third place in the 4×100 relay in 52.11 seconds. Langlois was fourth in the 100 sprint in 13.39 seconds, while Kyle got fourth place in the 2,000-meter steeplechase in 8:15.76.
Megan Knox was fifth in the 400 hurdles in 1:13.64. Kat Fletcher was seventh in the 800 in 2:39 flat and Megan Grabor was 11th in the 1,500-meter run.
Both of CBA’s teams would go to Bragman Stadium, site of the June 10-11 state championships, for Saturday’s Cicero-North Syracuse Invitational, and the girls would earn 42 points for fifth place as the boys side was ninth with 20 points.
Schug dominated the girls 400 sprint, going 57.93 seconds as no one else even broke the one-minute mark, West Genesee’s Kelsey Fox second in 1:01.29 as Peterson finished 11th in 1:03.16. Olivia Morganti won a close battle in the 2,000 steeplechase, finishing in 7:38.34 to top Niskayuna’s Sydney Smith (7:39.44) by 1.10 seconds.
Morganti also paired with Schug, Bargabos and LaCasse for second place (4:01.55) behind Skaneateles (a Lakers school-record 3:58.81) in the 4×400 relay, while Kempisty went 33’3 ½” in the triple jump to finish second behind C-NS’s Shayla Webb, who won with 36’ ¼”.
Kyle was fifth in the 1,500 in 5:06.28, with Langlois fifth in the 100 sprint in 13.41 seconds and sixth (28.32 seconds) in the 200. Kempisty got to ninth place in the long jump, while Fletcher was 11th in the 800.
On the boys side, SanGiacomo won again in the 200, going 22.46 seconds to pull away from C-NS’s Matt Killian (22.97 seconds) in the runner-up spot.
Carey finished fourth in the 400 hurdles in 1:01.27, while Walsh made it to third place in the 400 sprint in 52.28 seconds. Shawn Moreth was eighth (5’6”) in the high jump and Leonard eighth (36’10”) in the triple jump.
