For a large portion of Friday night’s Section III Class B-1 boys indoor track and field championship meet at Utica College’s Hutton Dome, Chittenango occupied the top spot, and Cazenovia wasn’t far behind.
And while the Bears didn’t stay in first place, its total of 84 points left them behind only Westhill-Bishop Ludden, who won with 104 points. The Lakers, with 69.66 points, were inches behind Institute of Technology Central (70 points) in the fight for third place.
Bad weather prevented some teams, including OHSL Division II champion Marcellus, from competing in this sectional meet, which benefited all of the other contenders, including Chittenango and Cazenovia.
The Bears were victorious in the 4×400 relay as Jacobi Dwyer, Dylan Price, Caleb Prenoveau and Nick Stanton posted a time of three minutes, 41.13 seconds, just ahead of Cazenovia’s quartet of James Pavelchak, Sean McPherson, Alec Boone and Zach Wendel, who finished in 3:42.35, just 1.22 seconds behind.
Later in the meet, Chittenango went to the top spot in the 4×800 relay as Price, Ersilio Cerminero, Mike Capeling and Jacob Blaszkow went 8:51.49 to top Phoenix (8:55.88) by more than four seconds.
Also, the Bears would win two field events. Dieago Prado, in the weight throw, tossed it 49 feet 9 3/4 inches to beat out Cazenovia’s Nate Spangler, who was second with 49’1 1/2″. Stanton joined in with a winning long jump of 19’4″, one inch better than ITC’s Nyshawn Jennings (19’3″).
Individually, Jacob Blaszkow gave Chittenango a win in the 1,000-meter run in 2:47.31, more than six seconds ahead of Phoenix’s Eric Leach (2:53.82). Mike Capeling claimed the mile in 4:42.12 over Westhill-Ludden’s Jake Suddaby (4:47.64) as Matt Morak was fifth in 5:08.34.
Plenty of points were attained by Chittenango in the 3,200-meter run, where Capeling, in 10:06.50, finished second to CBA’s Dominic Morganti (9:52.02), while Cerminero was fourth in 10:44.81 and Morak finished fifth (10:55.23) as Dave Gratien was seventh in 11:00.16. Stanton was fourth in the 300-meter dash in 38.25 seconds.
For its best relay finish in the 4×200, the Lakers had Boone, Pavelchak, McPherson and Collin Killany get to second place in 1:38.91, well ahead of Chittenango, who only finished sixth in 1:44.47.
Will Kmetz, who was fourth in the weight throw (38’4″), threw the shot put 40’3 1/2″ to finish second behind Westhill-Ludden’s Sean Corbett (44 feet) as Prado (37’5 1/2″) and Brady Lewis (36’11”) were fifth and sixth, respectively.
Ray Satchwell tied for second in the high jump, clearing 5’2″ as ITC’s Yasin Whitted won with 5’4″. Killany and Dalton Sevier tied for fourth, topping 5 feet. In the triple jump, Satchwell was fourth, going 36’3 1/2″.
Cazenovia also had Justin Gagnon get second place in the 55-meter hurdles in 9.22 seconds behind Phoenix’s Jacob Marr (8.38 seconds). Boone finished third in the 55-meter dash in 6.94 seconds, with Pavelchak seventh in 7.11 seconds.
Noah DeRochie was sixth in the mile in 5:15.32 as McPherson got sixth place in the 300 in 38.78 seconds. Derochie, Wendel, Cormac Race and John Henry Light-Olson were fifth in the 4×800 in 9:43.80.
With little rest, many of these same athletes will return to Onondaga Community College’s SRC Arena for Wednesday night’s sectional state qualifier, where top finishers advance to the March 4 state championships at Staten Island’s Ocean Breeze Athletic Complex.
