Once it warmed up and the snow cleared out, each of Baldwinsville’s track and field teams stepped into the spotlight with an exciting meet to open the 2018 season.
The Bees faced its neighbors from Liverpool last Wednesday at LHS Stadium, and could not win either meet as the boys lost 83-58 and the girls took an 81-60 defeat to the Warriors.
B’ville had some success on the track in the boys meet, with Zach Lewis taking the 400-meter dash in 53.39 seconds and Garrett Selover second in 54.48 seconds as Sam Kellner, in 2:08.13, edged Liverpool’s Nathan Reeves (2:08.31) in the 800-meter run.
Ben Timmons pulled away to win the 3,200-meter run in 10:00.97, but Liverpool won the rest of the events, led by Nazir Murray taking the 110 and 400 hurdles as Kellner was second in the latter event in 1:01.37.
Nate Jaquint and Sunday Joshua both cleared 5 feet 8 inches in the high jump, the only field event B’ville won. Cameron Majchrzak threw the shot put 43’8”, second to the Warriors’ Arthur Bittel (46 feet) as Jae Lee cleared 10 feet in the pole vault.
Jaquint was also second in the 110 high hurdles in 16.67 seconds to Murray, while in the 100-meter dash Zion Hayes, in 11.87 seconds, was just behind Liverpool’s Jahnye Turner, who won in 11.79 seconds.
Meanwhile, the girls meet between B’ville and Liverpool featured Adrianna Straughter, who won three events, clearing 5 feet in the high jump and going 16’9” in the long jump while also finishing first in the 100 hurdles in 16.81 seconds.
Justus Holden-Betts prevailed twice, needing 5:09.67 to prevail at 1,500 meters and then taking the 800 in 2:32.67 over Kristina Moore (2:37.67), while Elizabeth Fawwaz won the 3,000-meter run in 11:00.22, beating the field by more than eight seconds.
Lauren Addario was featured in a pair of close sprints, edging Liverpool’s Anne Gullo, 28.08 seconds to 28.13, in the 100, but finishing second (13.19 seconds) to Gullo (13.16) in the 100.
However, Addario picked up a second title in the triple jump, where her best leap of 34’9”topped Liverpool’s Lauren Fradette (32’4) as Maya Hewitt, clearing 8’8”, won the pole vault, with Sydney Boadway second.
Both of the B’ville sides would compete on Saturday in the Cicero-North Syracuse Relays at Bragman Stadium, the same venue that will host the state championships in early June.
The boys Bees finished fourth in the 15-team field with 36 points, 10 of them from winning the 4×800, where Timmons, Kellner, Kieran Sheridan and Joe Licmaelli went 8:38.96 to beat Rush-Henrietta (8:42.17) for the top spot.
Jaquint cleared 6 feet to win the individual high jump and, with Joshua topping 5’6”, the Bees, with 11’6”, topped C-NS’s 11’3” to win that event. Timmons won the individual mile in 4:36.20, though it only led to a fourth-place team total.
Lee, second in the pole vault by clearing 11 feet, earned fourth-place points by himself. Majchrzak and Jack Graham were third in the shot put, with total throws of 77’10 ½”, and Steve Miller joined Majchrzak to get third place in the discus with total distance of 220’10”. The Bees settled for eighth place in the 4×100 in 48.21 seconds
Meanwhile, the B’ville girls had 29 points to take seventh place. Straughter dueled with Rush-Henrietta star Lanae-Tava Thomas in the 100 hurdles and went 15.774 seconds to the 15.771 put up byThomas, who helped the Royal Comets set a meet record with 49.43 seconds to win the 4×100 and cleared 5’2” in the high jump.
Addario and Maggie Walikis, with their triple jumps of 64’4 ½”, were second to C-NS (69’8 ¼”). Danielle Marsell, paired with Sophia Valletta, got to third place in the discus, their best throws adding up to 160 feet, with that same pair and fourth in the shot put with total throws of 51’10”.
Hewitt and Ella Smith tied for third in the pole vault, clearing 14 feet total, B’ville also was fifth in the 1,500-meter relay (21:10.81) and fifth in the 4×800 in 11:24.60, while taking seventh in the 4×100, eighth in the 4×400 and ninth in the sprint medley.
