Each of the West Genesee indoor track and field teams emerged from last Saturday’s season-opening Jack Morse Kickoff Meet at SRC Arena with second-place finishes in their respective morning sessions, with Westhill-Bishop Ludden and Solvay close behind.
West Genesee’s boys had 64 points, trailing only Tully (74 points) as Westhill-Ludden got fourth place with 58 points and Solvay tied for seventh with 27.5 points. In the girls meet, the Wildcats, with 59 points, beat everyone except Fayeteville-Manlius (78 points) as Westhill-Ludden’s 53.5 points put them in third place and the Bearcats (35 points) were seventh.
To get started, WG won the boys 4×800 relay as David Leff, Ryan Dunning, Russ Graziano and Sean Byrnes posted 8:43.68, the only time under nine minutes. Westhill-Ludden had Jake Suddaby, Cal Niezabytowski, Ben Eassa and Cade Van Ornam finish third in 9:03.97. The Wildcats were also fifth in the 1,600 sprint medley relay (4:16.79) behind Westhill-Ludden (4:05.01) in fourth place, while WG got sixth in the 4×400 relay in 4:09.74.
Andrew Berry and Joe Francisco went 14.21 seconds between them in the 55-meter dash for third place, while Solvay’s Dylan Ewers and Jordan Devereaux were fourth in 14.37 seconds and Westhill-Ludden was seventh. Ewers got fifth-place points in the high jump, clearing 5’3”.
But Francisco and Berry were victorious in the 4×200 relay, helped by Javier Monserrate and Esisas Brumfield as they posted 1:39.54 and beat out Corcoran (1:41.27) for the top spot, with Warriors taking fourth place in 1:43.82. Berry and Griffin Dombroske finished second (35’9 ½”) in the long jump, where Solvay (31’7”) got fifth place, with Dombroske and Monserrate second (10’3”) behind F-M (11’2”) in the high jump.
In the mile relay, WG’s Matt Bartolotta, Patrick Trivison, Sean O’Brien and Tony Gettino were third in 20:46.16 and the Warriors were fifth in 22:17.16. Solvay’s best finish came in the weight throw, where John Dillon and Shane Spinner threw it 57’8 ¼” between them, but Tully won with 73’3”.
Owen Hoyne gave Westhill-Ludden a win in the 55-meter hurdles in 8.45 seconds and paired with Evan Watt to get the team win in 18.07 seconds, with WG’s Tim Hupmann and Dan Gill third in 19.86 seconds. Watt returned in the pole vault to join Eassa for a win as they both cleared 10’6”.
Also for the Warriors, Sean Corbett had a first-place shot put toss of 41 feet 11 inches as he and Evan Ballard were second (76 feet) to Central Square (76’6 ½”) on the team side and WG (68’9”) was fifth. Conner Schwartz and Justin Ristoff were third in the triple jump with combined efforts of 69’ ½”.
Moving to the girls side, WG won in the four-person 1,500-meter run event as Emily Young, Mia Mitchell, Kendall Dombroske and Taylor Reich posted four of the top seven individual times and totaled 20:39.67 to beat F-M’s 20:46.98. Westhill-Ludden finished fifth.
In the much shorter 4×200, the Wildcats prevailed again by seeing Megan Delia, Kelsey Fox, Abigail Kuppinger and Lauren Ferris go 1:53.05, more than four seconds ahead of the field as the Warriors gained fourth place in 2:01.08.
Delia and Fox, with long jumps of 29’5 ½”, were second to F-M (29’8”) by less than three inches, and in the triple jump Delia paired with Katherine Graziano to go 60’5 ¼”) in their attempts, again in second place to the Hornets’ 64’5”.
Young and Dombroske returned for the 1,600 sprint medley relay, helped by Anna Chwiejczak and Aubrey Trett as they finished second in 4:40.93, far behind F-M (4:16.78), but better than Westhill-Ludden (4:58.38) in fourth place and Solvay (5:08.46) in sixth place.
The Warriors won in the 55 hurdles, where Alyssa Holstein and Molly Bobbert, in a combined 21.34 seconds, topped a field that included WG’s Anna Chwiejczak and Olivia Becker (22.18 seconds) in third place. Holstein and Noelle Coolican went 1-2 in the pole vault, Coolican winning by clearing 9 feet.
Westhill-Ludden second in the 4×800 relay as Alaina Kenny, Liz Kessler, Haylei Coolican and Maura McAnaney posted 10:24.78 to F-M’s 10:13.38 and WG (11:54.02)was fifth. Reilly Geer, Zoe Fortin, Kendra McCaull and Megan O’Reilly were third in the 4×400 relay (4:40.22) as Solvay finished seventh in 4:58.89. Fox and Elisabeth Creaser helped WG finish seventh in the 55 sprint in 17 seconds flat.
Solvay flourished in field events, especially the high jump, where Katie Harrington and Kyra Crossett won with combined leaps of 9’6”, two inches ahead of F-M, as Westhill-Ludden tied for fourth thanks to Abby Feyerabend’s leap.
’Ashley Bosco won the shot put with a toss of 33’4 ½”, the only throw above 30 feet, as she and Tonaya Groton were second (53’6”) to Corcoran (53’11 ½”) on the team side and WG settled for seventh place. But Bosco and Sabrina Garnett had top weight throws of 58’2 ½”.
Marcellus did not compete until the afternoon session, going up against most of the large schools. But it finished fourth in the boys standings with 47 points as it got 27.5 points on the girls side for eighth place.
For the Marcellus boys, a victory came in the 4×800 where Ethan Mosure, Joe Riccardi, Matt Strempel and Michael Welch went 9:25.14 and no one else was within 22 seconds of them. Strempel, Mosure, Riccardi and Michael Brown were third in the mile relay in 20:11.85.
Quimone Bell-Hunter and Ryan White were seventh in the 55 sprint in 14.42 seconds, but White did help Welch, Sean Raymond and Mike Provvidenti push the Mustangs to third place in the sprint medley in 3:59.41.
In field events, Raymond won the high jump, clearing 5’10”, as he and Bell-Hunter topped 11’1” total, just behind East Syracuse Minoa’s 11’2”. Also, Sam Stearns cleared 11’9”, matching C-NS’s Ward Couillard for the top individual height and getting sixth-place points.
Also, Caleb Wetherell and Andrew Marsh got third place in the triple jump with leaps adding up to 70’7”. Luke Norstad and Chad Casler were third in the shot put with throws adding up to 76’7 ½’.
The girls Mustangs had Mary-Catherine Coon finish second among individuals in the 55 sprint in 7.80 seconds as she and Macie Szalch got fifth place (16.26 seconds) on the team side. Coon helped the Mustangs’ 4×200 relay side get sixth place in 2:00.05.
Coon and Sydney French tied for third in the high jump, clearing 9’4” between them. Courtney Otis and Hannah Ryan were fourth in the pole vault, topping 14’6” combined.
Caroline Carlic, Morgan Gould, Liliana Cushman and Olivia Bird finish third in the 4×800 in 11:01.15. Marcellus also got sixth place in the 4×400 in 5:00.17 as Gould was sixth in the individual 1,500 in 5:25.89 and Cushman was ninth. Mikayla Tangredi and Emily Durand earned a point for eighth place in the long jump.
