East Syracuse Minoa got the privilege of hosting Monday’s Onondaga High School League Freedom division track and field championships, and the hosts had plenty of success – but its neighbors from Jamesville-DeWitt did even better.
The girls Red Rams earned 176 points to beat out the Spartans, who had 110 points to finish second. Meanwhile, in the boys meet, J-D won with 159 points over runner-up Central Square (125 points) as ESM got third place with 94 points.
It started for J-D’s Alexandria Payne in the girls 100-meter hurdles, where she tore to victory in 15.76 seconds as ESM’s Mackenzie Bourdon was second in 17.39 seconds. Bourdon would add a second-place finish in the 400-meter hurdles in 1:15.76.
Minutes later, in the 100-meter dash, Payne needed 12.89 seconds to prevail as the Rams’ Denise Yaeger grabbed fifth place. vMoving to the 400-meter dash, Payne won again in 1:00.65 over ESM’s Kat Boland, who won a close battle for second place in 1:05.26. And in the long jump, Payne, going 15 feet 9 ¾ inches, nearly won again, just half an inch behind Homer’s Arielle Moheimani (15’10 ¼”) as Yaeger was fourth, going 14’7 ¾”.
Hannah Butler roared to an 800-meter title in 2:26.99 as Grace Bridge finished second in 2:34.68. Sophia Vinciguerra won the 1,500-meter run in 5:07.13, with Ayla Erwin fourth in 5:29.95. Abby Leavitt was second in the 3,000-meter run in 11:17.03 ahead of Abby Palin (11:34.40) in third place.
Butler also helped Amelia Gilbert, Olivia Budelmann and Cara Glazier take the 4×800 relay in 10:17.61, with ESM’s Melanie DeFeo, Kassandra Burr, Katherine Jacobs and Sage Almstead getting fourth place in 10:35.33.
In field events, J-D had Laetticia Bazile clear 5 feet 1 inch to win the high jump, with ESM’s Jennah Ferrari third (4’8”) and the Rams’ Lauren Saletsky fifth. Lauren Nandal earned first place in the shot put with a throw of 32’3” as Mariah Willaims was third, going 29’11”.
Gwyneth Botto, with 1,462 points, edged the Spartans’ Deanna Delore (1,327) for third place in the pentathlon. Samantha Aitken (8:45.5) and Megan Brown (9:02.2) were third and fourth, respectively, in the 2,000-meter steeplechase, with ESM’s Marina Lopez fifth in 9:06.6. Monica Hernandez-Olivia was fifth in the 100 hurdles, while Lanya Liebler-Bendix was fifth in the 400 hurdles.
ESM did win the 4×100 relay as Bourdon, Mia Montgomery, Sami Wysocki and Marissa Greiner went 51.62 seconds, with J-D having Yaeger, Ailish McDevitt, Emma Clardy and Sarah Hildreth third in 53.61 seconds. Hildreth was fifth in the 400 and McDevitt sixth in the 200.
And Montgomery would win in the triple jump, putting together a top leap of 34’6” that was more than three feet ahead of Oswego’s Lara Kanbur (31’1”). McDevitt was fifth.
In the 4×400 relay, Bourdon, Wysocki, Boland and Jacinta Hensinger were second (4:26.64) to Homer (4:21.31), while Hildreth, Keely Whipple, Amanda Semmel and Jenna VanVraken put J-D in third place in 4:28.74.
Wysocki nearly won the 200-meter dash, going 27.34 seconds to trail Central Square’s Madison Sabourin (27.25), and was fourth in the 100 sprint in 13.16 seconds as Greiner (13.46) took sixth. Almstead (2:38.44) and Burr (2:39.86) were fourth and fifth, respectively, in the 800.
Lindsey Crego, who was fourth in the shot put (29’1”) as Sara Bourdon finished sixth, rose to second place in the discus with a throw of 85’11”, with Williams fourth and Carolyn Kolceski fifth for J-D. Sophie Hartz got fifth place in the long jump, going 14’7 ½”.
The J-D boys did not get a win on the track until the 400 sprint, when David Fikhman went 51.80 seconds to beat, among others, Tyler Gabriel, who was third in 54.49 seconds.
In the 200, Fikhman was second in 23.44 seconds, while Joey Armenta got third place in 23.56 seconds, but in the 4×400 Fikhman, Armenta, Gabriel and Fidel Martinez won in 3:33.03 over Homer (3:34.21), with ESM sixth.
In the mile, Patrick Dye was nipped at the finish line by Homer’s Grant Stokoe, who won in 4:32.40 to Dye’s 4:32.45 as Nick Mannion (4:56.53) got sixth place, but Dye would beat everyone in the 3,200-meter run in 9:58.03. Dye, Martinez, Kaleel Boykins, Fidel Martinez and Sam Glisson were second (8:30.66) to Cortland (8:26.75) in the 4×800. Martinez was fourth in the 800 in 2:06.20.
J-D also had Takuya LeClair earn 2,346 points to edge Fulton’s Caleb Clarke (2,265) and win the pentathlon, with ESM’s Sal Stasi in fourth place. Sabri Hafizuddin was second in the 400 hurdles in 1:03.19 as Markos Petkopoulos was fifth in 1:05.48. Chris Blust, clearing 11 feet, was second in the pole vault and Alex Le was sixth (10’6”) as Central Square’s Joe Weaver cleared 13’6” to win.
Where ESM did get a win was in the 110 high hurdles as Isaiah Brooks, in 15.67 seconds, beat out J-D’s Alex Carbacio (16.01) and Ryan Bradford (16.12) as Myles Riggins was fourth for the Spartans in 18.78 seconds. In the high jump, Brooks finished third, clearing 5’10”, while Bradford was second in the triple jump with a leap of 39’4 ½”.
Brooks joined David Agans, Cody Laroche and Alec Kerestejian to claim a 4×100 thriller over J-D as the Spartans finished in 45.70 seconds and the Rams’ Murad Amurlavev, Trey Greene, Mike Anderson and Seth Blair posted 45.81 seconds. Greene was fourth in the long jump (19’9”), with Amurlayev sixth.
Gabe Holloman earned a winning shot put throw of 44’4” as Brooks again finished third, heaving it 43’6”. In the discus, Gavin Stevens was third with a throw of 118’5”, with Emir Karic fifth (105’9”) as J-D had Henry Middleton fourth (112’10”) and Joe Esposito sixth (104’6”).
Jared Henry gave ESM a second-place finish in the 3,000-meter steeplechase in 10:32.9, with Nolan Byrd fifth in 10:50.6. Nick Berg was third in the mile in 4:43.21 and fourth in the 3,200 in 10:18.03, ahead of Nolan Byrd in sixth place, and Henry was fifth in the 800.
Tyler Kilmer got fifth place in the 200, with Jesse Hodge fourth and Nate Andrus sixth in the pole vault. Berg, Dan Barry, Tyler Hodge and Nate Castor were fifth (8:55.38) in the 4×800. Hunter Bruner and Alex Kubecka were sixth and seventh, respectively, in the triple jump.
