Each of the area’s track and field teams will have athletes taking part in next weekend’s New York State Public High School Athletic Association championships, held on the familiar grounds of Cicero-North Syracuse’s Bragman Stadium.
They all got there by winning events during Friday’s sectional state qualifier, also held at C-NS, where West Genesee highlighted the local efforts with wins in four different events.
In the Division I (large school) 4×800 relay, the Wildcats’ Carly Benson, Kendall Dombroske, Emily Young and Maria Matkoski pulled away to win in nine minutes, 32.16 seconds. Not long after that, in the 4×400, Matkoski, Young, Kelsey Fox and Megan Delia posted 4:03.81 to top runner-up Baldwinsville (4:10.11) at the line.
Carly Benson would win on her own in the 800-meter run, needing 2:16.91 to beat Fayetteville-Manlius’ Sophie Ryan (2:19.02) by more than two seconds. Madalyn Benson got fifth place in the 400-meter hurdles in 1:09.86.
J’Nazia Anderson had a fourth-place shot put throw of 32 feet 9 ½ inches. Fox, competing in the 200-meter dash, made it to fifth place in 27.45 seconds. Delia finished seventh in the triple jump (34’4 ½”)eighth in the 100-meter dash in 13.11 seconds. The Wildcats’ 4×100 relay side took 10th place in 53.93 seconds.
David Leff gave the WG boys team a victory in the mile, pulling away as the race wore on and, in 4:23.45, beating C-NS’s Andrew Bearkland (4:28.17) by a comfortable margin. Evan Tuthill (116’8”) and Jayson Body (116’2”) were fifth and sixth, respectively, in the discus.
Westhill-Bishop Ludden won the Division II (small school) girls 4×800 as Annibel Coolican, Genny Corcoran, Haylei Coolican and Olivia Daigneau posted 10:02.23, clear of runner-up Lowville (10:12.27) by more than 10 seconds.
Katie DeVeyra was victorious in the 100-meter hurdles, going 15.93 seconds for the only time under 16 seconds as teammates Jayanna Monds (17.04 seconds) and Alyssa Holsten (18.17 seconds) were fourth and eighth, respectively.
In the pole vault, Katherine Doherty cleared 10’3”, the same height as South Lewis’ Kristina Platt, but since Platt had fewer misses, she prevailed as Doherty finished second and Noelle Coolican was fourth, clearing 9’6”. Liz Kessler was sixth in the 1,500-meter run in 5:04.40.
Keandre Sanders, Cody Badman, Evan Watt and Joe Connor were second (45.46 seconds) to Hamilton (45.01 seconds) in the 4×100 relay. Sanders, with a long jump of 21’11 ½”, finished second to Central Valley’s Zach Grim (22’3”), but went far enough to qualify for the state meet.
Garnet Remillard was second in the Division II 3,000-meter steeplechase, and seventh overall, in 10:22.76. Bryan King got second place (15.38 seconds) to Holland Patent’s Eddie Callahan (15.14 seconds) in the 110 high hurdles. Sean Corbett went 45’2 ¼” in the shot put and was second to Vernon-Verona-Sherrill’s Logan Wendt (49’9 ¾”).
Marcellus got its win from Mary-Catherine Coon, who in the Division II final of the 100 sprint went 12.56 seconds to finish well clear of Homer’s Alsasce Lorraine Sanders (12.86 seconds) and the field. Johanna Sylcox was seventh in the shot put, heaving it 30’1 ¼”.
The Mustangs’ Sean Raymond cleared 6 feet in the high jump, but was second to Mexico’s Hunter Hellinger, who went 6’2”. Also, Marcellus saw its boys 4×800 team of Raymond, Patrick McGuane, Joe Riccardi and Matt Strempel finish second in Division II in 8:17.97, just behind Tully’s winning 8:15.49.
Solvay boys track star Colton Francemone handled the opposition in the 400-meter hurdles. In 57.84 seconds, Francemone did just enough to hold off Chittenango’s Dylan Davie, who was second in 58.03 seconds.
The Bearcats also had Jonah Cavallo take third place in the 800-meter run in 2:01.73. Katie Harrington finished third in the Division II girls pentathlon with 2,723 points, not far from the winning 2,816 points posted by Tully’s Ellen Jaworski. Samantha Waters took 15th place in the discus.
With Jordan-Elbridge, the win would come from Russell Hines, who prevailed in the Division II 400-meter dash. Pulling away late, Hines won in 50.86 seconds, ahead of a field that included teammate Ethan Kinney, who got third place in 52.02 seconds.
Brad Marshall, throwing the shot put 42’6 ¼”, finished fourth, two spots behind Corbett. In the boys 4×400, Hines, Kinney, Pat Fordyce and Anthony Ortiz were sixth in 3:39.20.
The Eagles’ Abby Gugel, in a time of 7:13.76, was second in the Division II girls 2,000-meter steeplechase behind Tully’s Ashleigh Crawford, who won in 7:10.76, and Gugel went on to get second place (10:33.87) behind another Tully runner, Brooke Rauber (10:03.54), in the 3,000-meter run as Westhill-Ludden’s Alaina Kenny ran 11:03.62.
J-E nearly won the Division II 4×100, with Abigail Fallon, Madi Hatt, Julie Hines and Emily Klock going 51.82 seconds to gain second place behind Skaneateles (50.32 seconds) as Westhill-Ludden was fifth in 52.89 seconds. Hines got fourth place in the 200 in 26.77 seconds as Emma Burns was sixth in the 800 in 2:28.22.
