Athletes from four different area high school indoor track and field teams made their way to Staten Island’s Ocean Breeze Athletic Center last weekend, a new venue for the New York State Public High School Athletic Association championship meet.
West Genesee was well-represented in the girls state meet led by its 4×400 relay team of Carly Benson, Megan Delia, Kendall Dombroske and Emily Young. With a preliminary time of four minutes, 3.20 seconds, the Wildcats advanced to the finals, where in 4:09.38 it ended up in eighth place. West Babylon won in 3:53.03.
Benson was also part of the 600-meter run, where she claimed 14th place in a time of 1:38.29, which was off her season-best 1:36.52. Paris Peoples (Benjamin Nardozo) took the state title in 1:31.87.
Young took part in the 1,000-meter run, where she got 28th place in 3:07.74 as Fayetteville-Manlius’ Phoebe White got fifth place in 2:54.63. Delia was in the 300-meter dash, running her heat in 43.77 seconds, putting her in 27th place.
Having broken her school record several times over, Solvay standout Ashley Bosco hoped to contend in the girls shot put. Having thrown 38 feet 11 inches during the season to set a school record, Bosco could only get 35’1 ½” here and took 18th place as Shenendehowa’s Jillian Shippee won with 43’10 ¼”.
Bosco’s teammate, Katie Harrington, was part of the high jump, where she had cleared 5’3” this season but could only top 5 feet here, the same as her Section III teammate, Baldwinsville’s Adrianna Straughter. Scarsdale’s Kendall Bensche won the event by topping 5’6”.
On the boys side, West Genesee’s David Leff took part in the mile. Leff improved his season-best time to 4:24.65 and finished 16th, while Liverpool’s Stephen Schulz was third in 4:18.62 and Corning’s Kevin Moshier won in 4;13.79.
Meanwhile, Marcellus standout Sean Raymond was in the boys high jump, able to clear 5’9” to tie B’ville’s Nate Jaquint for 17th place as Smithtown East’s Daniel Claxton beat the field by half a foot by topping 6’11.
The lone Westhill-Bishop Ludden representative, Sean Corbett, competed in the boys shot put, able to earn a best throw of 43’9” after going 48’1 ½” during the season. That put Corbett in 18th place. Dan Byrne (Kings Park) won with a throw of 58’10 ¼” and Nottingham’s Jaleel Barry (52’2 ¾”) brought home a sixth-place finish.
