Full field or not, it didn’t matter to the Westhill-Bishop Ludden boys indoor track and field team, who took home the Section III Class B-1 championship.
Heavy snow early on Friday kept some teams, including Marcellus (who won the OHSL Class B meet a week earlier) and Jordan-Elbridge from making the trip Friday night to Utica College’s Hutton Dome.
In the boys B-1 sectional meet, Westhill-Ludden, without Marcellus to worry about, emerged with 106 points to get away from runner-up Chittenango, who had 84 points. Solvay was seventh with 31 points.
During a 1-2 sweep of the pole vault, Westhill-Ludden saw Evan Watt prevail, clearing 12 feet, while Ben Eassa prevailed by clearing 11 feet. Sean Corbett added a victory in the shot put, his throw of 44 feet more than three feet ahead of Cazenovia’s Will Kmetz (40’3 1/2″) in the runner-up spot. Corbett also was third in the weight throw with a toss of 47’3 1/2″.
Westhill-Ludden’s Tom Howard got his own win in the 300-meter dash, holding off Solvay’s Jordan Devereaux, 37.63 seconds to Devereaux’s 37.92, as Watt, finished 10th. Then, to clinch the sectional title, Howard and Watt joined Cal Niezabytowski and Connor Schwartz to help the Warriors prevail in 1:37.93 to Cazenovia’s 1:38.91.
Contending in the mile, Jake Suddaby was second in 4:47.64 behind Chittenango’s Mike Capeling (4:42.12) as Brendan Rewakowski got fourth place in 5:03.32.
Cade Van Ornam earned third place in the 600-meter run in 1:32.89 before Owen Hoyne took third in the 55-meter hurdles. Howard added a fifth-place finish in the 55-meter dash in 7.02 seconds.
In the 4×800 relay, Suddaby, Eassa, Van Ornam and Jacob Fricano got to third place in 9:01.55. Also, Cal Niezabytowski, Charlie Doebert, Connor Schwartz and Owen Hoyne were fifth (3:54.11) in the 4×400 relay.
Schwartz nearly won the triple jump, going 37 feet to finish half an inch behind Institute of Technology Central’s Raynard Mackenzie (37′ 1/2″) as Eassa was third, going 36’11 1/2″.
Solvay’s Dylon Ewers rose to second place in the high jump, clearing 5’2″, an effort only topped by Institute of Technology Central’s Yasin Whitted, who won with 5’4″. Then Ewers finished third in the long jump, going 18’2″ to beat out Hoyne (18′ 1/2″), who was fourth.
Meanwhile, in the girls sectional B-1 meet, Westhill-Ludden gained 101.5 points of its own, but that put the Warriors in second place behind Cazenovia, who won with 167.5 points, as Solvay gained 52 points to finish fourth.
More than a fifth of the Warriors’ points – 22 – came from the pole vault, where Noelle Coolican won by clearing 10 feet 3 inches. Ashley Heffernan was third and Bella Lavigne, each clearing 8 feet, while Sarah Thompson and Alyssa Holstein shared fifth place by topping 7’6″.
Haylei Coolican needed 3:12.12 to edge Cazenovia’s Megan Henderson (3:12.31) and win the 1,000-meter run, with Liz Kessler fifth in 3:16.44. Later, in the 1,500-meter run, Coolican got second place in 5:12.80, just behind the Lakers’ Meggie Hart (5:12.45) at the finish line.
Alyssa Holstein was second (9.50 seconds) to Vernon-Verona-Sherrill’s Racheal Cadrette (9.39 seconds) in the 55 hurdles. Zoe Fortin, Maura McAnaney, Reilly Geer and Megan O’Reilly were second (4:26.69) to Phoenix (4:21.52) in the 4×400, with Solvay’s Kyra Crossett, Isabellla Lambert, Kathleen Demong and Jordyn Willsey fifth in 4:33.89.
Alaina Kenny was third in the 3,000-meter run in 11:22.97, with Kylie Nowicki sixth in 11:43.05. Kendra McCaull got to third place in the 600 in 1:49.68, with Meghan Evans (1:58.64) sixth. Kenny, McAnaney, Carmella Carr and Ashley Heffernan were third in the 4×800 in 10:41.63.
Ashley Bosco cotinued her dominance of throwing events for Solvay, heaving the shot put 38’9 1/2″ to beat the Warriors’ Kayla Helfeld (28′ 1/2″) as Sabrina Garnett was third for the Bearcats, going 25’10 1/4″.
In the weight throw, Bosco nearly repeated her shot put distance, winning with 35’3 1/4″ as Garnett was fifth (25’7 1/4″) and Lavigne was in between them with a third-place toss of 31 feet. Fortin got fifth place in the long jump, leaping 14’7 3/4″.
Solvay also had Katie Harrington win the high jump, clearing 5’3″, more than half a foot ahead of the field as Westhill-Ludden’s Abby Feyerabend tied for fifth (4’6″) and Crossett was seventh for the Bearcats.
Elsewhere, Harrington was third in the triple jump, going 32’5″ as Fortin, who was fifth in the long jump (14’7 3/4″), finished fourth here with 32′ 1/2″. Harrington took fifth place in the 55 hurdles in 10.19 seconds. In the 4×200, Crossett, Demong, Willsey and Lambert were fourth in 1:57.87, ahead of Westhill-Ludden (2:00.39) in fifth place.
All of the area’s athletes will return to SRC Arena next Wednesday for the sectional state qualifier, looking for spots in the March 4 state championship meet at Staten Island’s Ocean Breeze Athletic Complex.
