Even with Carly Benson winning twice – once on her own, and also as part of the 4×400 relay – the West Genesee girls track and field team found it difficult to keep up with its large-scale opponents during Wednesday’s Section III Class AA championships at Cicero-North Syracuse’s Bragman Stadium.
All told, the Wildcats earned 55 points, just behind Rome Free Academy (56 points) in the battle for fourth place. Fayetteville-Manlius (143 points) rallied past Liverpool (131 points) for the top spot, with host C-NS third.
In the 800, Benson finished in two minutes, 18.29 seconds, more than two seconds ahead of the runner-up, F-M’s Kaitlyn Neal, who had 2:20.48. Later, in the 4×400, Benson, joining Maria Matkoski, Megan Delia and Kendall Dombroske, went 4:05.85 to top second-place Baldwinsville (4:07.99) and the field.
Matkoski gained another title for the Wildcats in the 400-meter dash. In a time of 59.85 seconds, Matkoski edged past Corcoran’s Jaelyn Howard (59.90 seconds) for first place, the only two in the field to break the one-minute mark. Benson also gained fourth place in the 1,500-meter run in 4:50.32, with Sara Ferranti 16th.
Aside from all that, WG nearly toppled F-M in the 4×800 relay, a Hornets specialty. Matkoski, Dombroske, Emily Young and Mia Mitchell finished in 9:34.09, staying close to the top, but settling for second place as the Hornets won in 9:32.98, barely a second in front.
J’Nazia Anderson needed a toss of 33 feet 5 inches to finish fourth in the shot put. Young made it to fifth place in the 3,000-meter run in 10:38.11, with Mitchell 12th and Bridget Spiddle 14th. Dombroske took 11th place in the 800 in 2:29.50. Delia was fifth in the triple jump, going 34’7 ½”, and reached sixth place in the 100-meter dash in 13.01 seconds.
Delia, Kelsey Fox, Shelby Kiteveles and Thi Tran got fifth place in the 4×100 relay in 52.20 seconds as Fox was sixth (27.37 seconds) in the 200-meter dash. Madalyn Benson needed 1:11.66 to take sixth place in the 400-meter hurdles and was seventh in the 100-meter hurdles in 17.58 seconds.
Meanwhile, in the sectional Class AA boys championships, WG’s Evan Tuthill and David Leff both recorded top-three finishes to account for most of the team’s 24 points as it tied Corcoran for eighth place, well off C-NS’s winning total of 152.33 points.
Tuthill had the Wildcats’ lone runner-up finish, in the discus, where his best throw of 131 feet 8 inches nearly won it, but Corcoran’s Lucas West, with a throw of 132’8”, beat Tuthill by 12 inches.
Leff began his efforts in the mile, where in a time of 4:23.51 he was third, just behind F-M’s Bryan Geehrer (4:23.17) and Liverpool’s Ben Petrella, who won in 4:21.16. It was the same in the 3,200-meter run, Leff getting third place in 9:37.13 and Petrella (9:25.48) in the top spot as Ryan Dunning finished 12th.
Peter Bowman got fifth place in the pole vault, clearing 10’6”. Mark Dellefave rose to seventh place in the 400 sprint in 53.27 seconds, with Russ Graziano seventh in the 800 in 2:05.43. and Sean Byrnes ninth in the 3,000-meter steeplechase in 10:55.69.
Dellefave, Griffin Dombroske, Cameron Mitchell and Paul Stannard got eighth place in the 4×400 in 3:44.50. Tim Huppman was ninth (1:02.86) in the 400 hurdles and Andrew Berry got 10th place in the 100 sprint in 11.58 seconds and was 13th in the 200.
