Amid tough competition, the West Genesee girls indoor track and field team would gain a sixth-place finish during Thursday night’s Section III Class AA championships at SRC Arena.
All told, the Wildcats earned 51 points, just behind fifth-place Rome Free Academy’s total of 59.5 points. Fayetteville-Manlius, undefeated this winter, claimed the sectional title with 127 points as Liverpool (97 points) finished second.
Carly Benson would claim second place in the 3,000-meter run in 10:40.46 behind F-M’s Claire Walters, who won in 10:09.48. Then, in the 1,000-meter run, Benson posted 3:04.11 for third place behind the Hornets’ Sophie Ryan (2:59.78) and Phoebe White (3:01.22), while in the 1,500-meter run
Benson again got third place, in 4:55.08 as Cicero-North Syracuse’s Mia Pestle (4:49.99) prevailed, before a 4×800 relay where Benson, paired with Emily Young, Mia Mitchell and Amanda Lowther, got third place in 10:00.12, just behind RFA (9:59.18) as F-M (9:50.55) beat them both.
Megan Delia, in 43.72 seconds, rose to second place in the 300-meter dash, inches behind Liverpool’s Kierra Richardson (43.65 seconds), while also taking fifth place in the triple jump, going 33 feet 7 ½ inches. . WG also finished second in the 4×400 relay as Kendall Dombroske, Kelsey Fox, Lauren Ferris and Abigail Kuppinger poted 4:12.04, but F-M (4:07.8) finished in front.
Young was fourth in the 600-meter run in 1:40.71, with Lowther ninth in 1:46.20. Fox gained seventh place in the long jump, going 14’11 ¾”.
WG’s boys indoor track team managed just 12 points in its sectional AA meet as Baldwinsville (107 points) held off Liverpool (100 points) and C-NS (96 points) for the top spot.
Half of those points came from the 4×400, where Javier Monserrate, Ryan Dunning, Griffin Dombroske and Joe Francisco got third place in 3:39.04, inches behind Auburn (3:38.97) in second place as B’ville got the victory in 3:33.45. Dombroske, on his own, went 18’11 ¼” in the long jump to finish eighth.
David Leff had a strong showing in the boys 1,000, getting fourth place in a clocking of 2:42.11. Andrew Berry was sixth in the 55-meter dash in 6.84 seconds. Leff, Sean Byrnes, Russ Graziano and Paul Stannard were sixth in the 4×800 in 8;50.67, with Berry, Monserrate, Dombroske and Esisas Brumfield eighth in the 4×200 in 1:39.28.
Some of WG’s top athletes would come back to SRC Arena next Wednesday for the sectional state qualifier, the last chance to earn berths in the March 4 state meet at the Ocean Breeze complex on Staten Island.
