Just two points separated the Chittenango boys track and field team from going to the top of the standings in Friday’s Section III Class A-2 championships at Camden High School.
The Bears had 95 points, part of a tight race for first place. It was Homer, with 97 points, who won it, while Chittenango held off Phoenix (86 points) and Cortland (79 points) for that runner-up spot.
Going 1-2 in the 400-meter dash, the Bears had Nick Stanton prevail in 52.74 seconds, holding off Akira Gatewood, who finished in 52.83 seconds. Later, in the 200-meter dash, Gatewood won, edging Cortland’s Ezra Engst-Mansilla, 22.74 seconds to 22.79, with Stanton getting third place in 23.51 seconds.
Stanton wasn’t done winning, either, for in the 4×400 relay he paired with Ward Beley, Dylan Davie and Jacobi Dwyer as the Bears, in a time of 3:33.22, pulled away from Homer (3:38.24) by more than five seconds.
Gatewood sprinted to third place in the 100-meter dash in 11.79 seconds. Mike Capeling made it to fourth place in the mile in 4:49.19. Also, Gatewood had Chittenango’s best finish in a field event, going 41 feet 5 1/2 inches for fourth place in the triple jump.
Tyler Howard, in 16.57 seconds, was second behind Homer’s Paul Morse (16.10 seconds) in the 110 high hurdles, while Dylan Davie was fourth in 17.26 seconds as Howard got sixth place in the pole vault, clearing 10 feet.
Davie improved in the 400 hurdles to a second-place finish in 1:00.40 behind Phoenix’s Chris Fisk (59.62 seconds) as Howard (1:04.86) settled for ninth place. In the long jump, Davie was eighth, going 19’4″ as Stanton (19′ 1/2″) gained 11th place.
Mike Capeling rose to second place in the 3,200-meter run, his time of 10:34.32 only bested by Cortland’s Andy Boyce (10:20.08) as Ersilio Cerminero was fifth in 10:50.78 and Dave Gratien (11:15 flat) was seventh.
In a time of 4:49.19, Capeling finished fourth in the mile, with Phillip Abell eighth (4:58.16) and Devlin Cameron 10th (5:02.34) before Jacob Blaszkow got fifth place in the 800-meter run in 2:08.59 as Abell (2:15.46) was 10th.
In the 4×800 relay, Blaszkow, Abell, Will Blanding and Caleb Prenoveau were fifth in 9:00.89. Howard, Beley, Dwyer and Jake Boyer were seventh in the 4×100 relay in 47.54 seconds as Blanding got fifth place in the 3,000-meter steeplechase in 11:20.52.
Dieago Prado threw the shot put 38’1 3/4″ and got ninth place, later finishing 14th in the discus.
