Sam Mahar’s twin conquests of the 100 and 200-meter sprints was a big reason why the Baldwinsville boys track and field team made it to third place in Wednesday’s Section III Class AA championship meet at Cicero-North Syracuse’s Bragman Stadium.
As a whole, the Bees picked up 77 points, an impressive total, even if it didn’t quite keep up with the numbers that host C-NS (152.33 points) and Liverpool (122 points) put up to finish in the top two.
Mahar would get through the 100 in 11.14 seconds, enough to fend off C-NS’s Jeremiah Willis (11.22 seconds) as Jack Buis was ninth in 11.55 seconds. Then, in the 200, Mahar got challenged by Auburn’s Kavon Hunt, but won again 22.46 seconds to Hunt’s 22.79.
Also running in the 4×100 relay, Mahar, paired with Buis, Brandon Brown and Evan Donhauser, finished in 44.25 seconds, a close third behind C-NS (44.06 seconds) and Liverpool (44.15 seconds) in a battle sure to continue this Friday at Bragman Stadium when the sectional state qualifier takes place.
Meanwhile, Nate Jaquint was in line to capture the five-event pentathlon, leading by a comfortable margin with one event to go after getting the most points in each of the first three events – the 110 high hurdles, high jump (where he cleared 5 feet 9 ¾ inches) and shot put.
But a surge by Fayetteville-Manlius’ Connor Florczyk in the closing 1,500-meter run meant that Jaquint, with 2,666 points, finished one point behind Florczyk’s 2,667, with C-NS’s Jason Hughes (2,592 points) close behind in third place.
Greg Porceng, who was 11th in the 200, made his push in the 400-meter dash, going 51.32 seconds to get second place behind Corcoran’s Naseem Fielder (50.38) as Porceng’s teammate, Kieran Sheridan, was third in 52.62 seconds.
Donhauser earned third place in the 110 high hurdles in 15.44 seconds behind C-NS teammates Ed Mahana (15.16) and Joe Williams (15.36). Kenny Stehle was fourth in the 400 hurdles in 1:00.75, with Justin Goodridge fifth in 1:01.70 as Mahana (56.76 seconds) won here, too.
Evan Vannatta got third place in the 800-meter run, breaking the two-minute mark (1:59.79), but just behind Liverpool teammates Terrell Coleman (1:59.26) and Ben Petrella (1:59.58), who won both the mile and 3,200-meter run.
Vannatta, Denis Keegan, Ryan Delola and Evan Biederman needed 8:31.27 to gain fourth place in the 4×800 relay, while in the 4×400 Porceng and Sheridan joined Vannatta and Tyler Luciano, again for a fourth-place finish in 3:30.47, just 0.06 seconds behind third-place Liverpool.
Griffin Lynch, in the pole vault, cleared 10 feet 6 inches and finished fourth, with Mike Lagana and Brad Krahl sharing sixth place as they each topped 10 feet. Jake Wicks was fifth in the shot put, throwing it 42’10 ¼”, just ahead of Gabe Horan (41’8 ¾”), Judson Fletcher (41’6 1 /4”) and Alex Garcia (40’4 ¾”).
Fletcher returned for seventh place in the discus, going 121’1” as Mike Spicer was eighth with a heave of 117’5” and Garcia finished 12th. Kevin Starr, clearing 5’6”, earned ninth place in the high jump as Brown, going 19’4 ¼”, topped Luciano (19’1 ¾”) and Austin Catalano (18’4 ¾”) for eighth place in the long jump. Catalano had an eighth-place triple jump of 38’11 ¼”.
Joey Frink (4:42.14) edged out Ben Timmins (4:42.49) for ninth place in the mile. Keegan took 12th place in the 800, two spots behind Ethan Craig (2:10.24) in 10th, and Delola was 10th (10:29.31) in the 3,200-meter run. Andrew VanSlyke and Connor McManus were 12th and 13th, respectively, in the 3,000-meter steeplechase.
Moving to the girls portion of the sectional AA meet, B’ville finished with 41 points and got sixth place, while Fayetteville-Manlius, with 143 points, edged out Liverpool (131 points) for the top spot.
A victory was earned by the Bees’ Adrianna Straughter in the high jump. Only Straughter could top 5 feet, eventually getting to 5’2” as the chasers included Kourtnee Allen, who topped 4’10” for fourth place. Straughter also was 10th (17.71 seconds) in the 100-meter hurdles,
Shylea Dukat went for the title in the 400 hurdles and nearly won it, the Bees junior going 1:07.61 to finish just 0.36 seconds behind F-M’s Gwenn Shepardson, who won in 1:07.25. In the 4×400 relay, Dukat, Kelley Hull, Tina Bartelli and Anna Demer went 4:07.99, trailing only West Genesee, who won in 4:05.85.
Hailey Couchman was third in the triple jump with a best attempt of 17’2 ½”, while Marina Blasi was 10th and Jordyn Boutilier 11th. Hull, in a clocking of 2:22.20, made it to fifth place in the 800. Katie Wicks got sixth place in the 400 sprint in 1:02.16, with Tina Bartelli seventh in 1:02.60. Anna Miller was seventh in the shot put with a heave of 29’10”.
Haleigh Jaquint finished fifth in the pentathlon, earning 2,249 points as C-NS’s Brittany House (2,723 points) pulled away for the victory. Mia Bolton, Sarah Rodman, Madison Dickter and Nadine Dickter were sixth in the 4×800 relay in 10:42.65, while Boutilier, Hannah Klaben, Katherine Siddall and Katie Weaver were seventh (53.07 seconds) in the 4×100.
Kaitlyn Asditt, throwing the shot put 84’8”, got seventh place. Justus Holden-Betts was ninth in the 1,500-meter run in 5:03.64, with Patricia Conlan getting 18th place. Elizabeth Fawwaz got ninth place in the 2,000-meter steeplechase in 8:22.31, two spots ahead of Nadine Dickter (8:24.55) in 11th place.
