For those track and field athletes that didn’t head out of town in the week after Easter, there was competition right in the neighborhood as the combined Westhill-Bishop Ludden program hosted its third annual Spring Break Invitational.
No points were given in team standings, but local sides, including Westhill-Ludden, Solvay and Jordan-Elbridge, did make some noise.
On her home track, Westhill-Ludden’s Haylei Coolican started the race schedule by taking the 2,000-meter steeplechase in seven minutes, 43.56 seconds. In the boys shot put, the Warriors’ Sean Corbett won with a throw of 45 feet 3 inches, with Altmar-Parish-Williamstown’s Takota Jacobson second thanks to his throw of 44’6”.
The boys pole vault offered a 1-2 Westhill-Ludden finish as Evan Watt prevailed, clearing 12 feet, and Ben Eassa (11 feet) was second as J-E’s Nate Jennings (9’6”) got fifth place. Also, Eassa had a fifth-place long jump of 19’5 ½” to beat out J-E teammates Ethan Madden and Marion Quigley (both went 19’4”).
Zoe Fortin got third place in the girls triple jump with a leap of 32’8”. Eassa was fourth in the boys triple jump (39 feet), a foot ahead of teammate Connor Schwartz in sixth place. Jake Suddaby was sixth in the boys mile in 4:44.58, with teammates Dan Washburn and Brendan Rewakowski ninth and 10th, respectively as Owen Hoyne was ninth in the long jump and high jump.
Solvay’s Ashley Bosco continued her domination of the girls shot put, winning it with a throw of 36’11 ½”, more than six feet ahead of anyone else. Westhill-Ludden’s Kayla Helfeld was fifth, going 27’6 ¼”.
Meanwhile, the Bearcats’ Jordan Devereaux was second in the boys 100-meter dash in 11.69 seconds behind Jamesville-DeWitt’s Joey Armenta (11.61), with Westhill-Ludden’s Tom Howard third in 11.72 seconds and J-E’s Ethan Kinney sixth in 11.99 seconds.
In the 200-meter dash, Devereaux again finished second, his time of 23.54 seconds behind Armenta’s J-D teammate, David Fikhman, who won in 23.08 seconds. Howard gained third place in 23.82 seconds and Kinney (24.03) beat out the Warriors’ Evan Watt (24.44) for fifth place as Quigley was eighth.
Solvay’s trio of Serenity Thomas, Jianna Speech and Kyra Crossett were third in the 3×100 shuttle hurdles relay in 59.35 seconds, with Westhill-Ludden fifth. The Bearcats added a sixth-place boys finish in its 3×110 event in 1:01.43 as Max Melnyk, Ed Matysuk and Justice Shirley took part.
Lamar Flood, eighth in the long jump and high jump, helped the Bearcats by getting third place in the triple jump with 39’6”Nate Gardner was seventh (104’3”) in the boys discus. Brielle Bagozzi got third place in the girls high jump, clearing 4’6”.
J-E had its best finishes in the pair of 4×400 relays. On the girls side, Emma Burns, Emily Klock, Julie Hines and Kyler Langhorn finished second in 4:11.42, just behind Skaneateles (4:10.48) in the top spot as Solvay got fifth place in 4:31.09. Burns took sixth place in the 1,500-meter run in 5:08.60, with Flood eighth in the long jump.
The boys 4×400 included Quigley, Ethan Kinney, Logan Kinney and Ryan Chiaramonte, who roared to a time of 3:41.62 to beat everyone except J-D, who won in 3:34.46. Westhill-Ludden’s Cal Niezabytowski, Owen Hoyne, Connor Schwartz and Cade Van Ornam were third in 3:43.61.
