Between Alexandria Payne’s excellence, the depth of its distance runners, a 1-2-3 sweep in the pole vault and a 1-2 finish in the pentathlon, the Jamesville-DeWitt girls track and field team had all of the answers and, as a result, brought home another Section III Class A-1 championship.
During Tuesday’s sectional A-1 meet, held at Chittenango High School, the Red Rams picked up 173 points to pull away from runner-up Whitesboro, who had 99 points. East Syracuse Minoa, with 67.5 points, beat out New Hartford (63.5 points) for third place.
To begin her day, Payne ran the 100-meter hurdles in 16.15 seconds, beating the field by more than a second. Right after, in the 100-meter dash, Payne held off Watertown’s Janiesia Crockett, 13.09 seconds to 13.17.
A third title came in the 200-meter dash, where Payne went 26.40 seconds and no one else broke the 27-second mark. Finally, in the long jump, Payne leaped 15 feet 8 1/2 inches, finishing second behind Whitesboro’s Kelsey Wands, who went 16’9″.
Gabrielle Tanksley led the J-D sweep in the pole vault, clearing 9 feet with fewer misses than Sara Signorelli, while Lauren Saletsky was third, topping 8’6″. ESM’s Alexis Garm and Lindsey Russell were fourth and sixth, respectively, though they both cleared 7’6″.
Moving to the pentathlon, Ciara Norris won it for J-D, picking up 2,266 points by winning three of five events – the 100 hurdles, high jump and long jump. Lainey Foti was close behind, getting the runner-up spot with 2,022 points. ESM’s Mackenzie O’Neil was fourth with 1,399 points.
Hannah Butler got to the front in the 3,000-meter run in 10:32.95, part of a 22-point J-D effort where Abigail Leavitt was third in 11:39.96, ahead of Amelia Gilbert (11:48.97) and Kim Walsh (12:10.82).
Butler also paired with Abby Palin, Kim Walsh and Rebecca Shen as the Rams claimed the 4×800 relay in 10:29.36. ESM had Natalie Marra, Katherine Jacobs, Kassandra Burr and Melanie DeFeo finish second in 10:33.89.
On her own, Marra was victorious in the 1,500-meter run, posting a time of 4:50.68, chased by, among others, J-D’s Sophia Vinciguerra, who was third in 4:54.58. Marra was second (2:27.89) to New Hartford’s Elizabeth Haddad (2:25.47) in the 800-meter run, with Vinciguerra fourth in 2:36.88, beating out ESM’s Sage Almstead (2:36.98) for that spot.
Mia Montgomery earned ESM’s other title, in the triple jump, going 35’5″ to beat Wands (34’8 1/2″) in the runner-up spot, this after Montgomery finished fifth (14’11 1/2″) in the triple jump.
Shen, Mackenzie Maxam (who was fourth in the triple jump with 31’10 1/4″), Ailish McDevitt and Alexia Carr were third in the 4×100 relay in 52.43 seconds, with ESM having Montgomery, Lindsey Russell, Kaylee DeLucia and Lashae Benjamin finish fifth in 53.23 seconds.
Casey Keane gave J-D a second-place finish in the 400-meter dash in 1:02.16, while Elena Haarer was third in the 400-meter hurdles in 1:09.61. Megan Brown was second in the 2,000-meter steeplechase in 7:57.56.Keane, Haarer, Chloe Hayward and Amanda Semmel were third in the 4×400 relay in 4:19.36.
Mariah Williams earned second place in the shot put with a top throw of 30’7 1/2″. She would later earn fourth place in the discus with a heave of 85’2″ as Jessica Pace (78’4″) was sixth.
ESM’s Megan Vanderwarker was fourth in the 400 in 1:03.60 as teammate Mackenzie Bourdon was fourth in the 100 hurdles in 17.76 seconds and fifth (1:12.93) in the 400 hurdles. Vanderwarker, Kat Boland, Makaila White and Jacinta Hensinger were fourth (4:21.36) in the 4×400, exactly two seconds behind J-D. Yamila Wunsch got fifth place in the 2,000 steeplechase in 9:02.43.
