Each of the area’s track and field teams spent the last Friday of April taking part in two different large-scale meets, and each of them found some degree of success.
The West Genesee girls team finished fourth in the Chittenango Invitational with 54 points, behind only large-school powers Fayetteville-Manlius, Liverpool and Cicero-North Syracuse in a meet where both of the Marcellus teams and the Westhill boys also took part.
WG’s girls prevailed in the 4×100 relay, where Caitlin Mills, Sandy Gardino, Amina Mambambu and Kelsey Fox went 50.74 seconds, more than a second ahead of runner-up Liverpool (51.77).
Mills, on her own, edged the Warriors’ Marissa Baskin, 12.80 seconds to 12.81, to win the 100-meter dash, while Mambambu was fourth in 13.19 seconds.
Abby Kuppinger went 1:01.03 in the 400-meter dash, three-hundredths of a second behind F-M’s Susan Bansbach, who won in 1:01 flat. Kuppinger, Phoebe Anderson, Mikeayla DeJesus and Katie Graziano were third in the 4×400 relay in 4:23.91.
Faith Knox took third place in the full-field mile in 5:40.25, but did better in the 4×800 relay, where she joined Fox, Mia Mitchell and Natalie Buckhout as WG finished second in 10:22.74.
Fox got sixth place in the long jump with a leap of 15 feet 4 inches. Emily Young was sixth in the Fleet Feet Mile in 5:15.26, just ahead of teammate Carly Benson (5:18.28) in seventh place.
Marcellus had Julianna Szczech clear 7’6″ in the pole vault, second to Jamesville-DeWitt’s Eva Wisniewski, who won with 8 feet. The Mustangs’ Amy Francesconi earned 1,479 points in the pentathlon, claiming third place.
Ben Eassa gave the Westhill boys team a victory in the pole vault, clearing 12 feet 6 inches as teammate Eamon McPeak was fourth, topping 9 feet. Eassa added a third-place long jump of 18’11 1/2″ and was fourth in the triple jump, going 40’7 1/2″.
Also for Westhill, Brendan Rewakowski was sixth in the full-field mile in 4:43.84, while Evan Ballard was sixth in the discus (110’9″). Mike Laszlo was seventh in the pentathlon with 2,111 points, while Owen Hoyne was seventh in the 110 high hurdles and Clayton Markham seventh in the 400 hurdles. The Warriors were sixth (3:47.86) in the 4×400.
WG’s boys team had Chris McAfee finish second in the shot put with a throw of 46’8 1/2″. Matt Bartolotta get fourth place in the 3,200-meter run in 10:12.55. For Marcellus, Dan Balman tied for sixth in the high jump, clearing 5’6″.
While all this was going on, Solvay and Jordan-Elbridge took part in the Whitesboro Ed Wadas Invitational, with the girls Bearcats seventh in the 19-team field and the boys Eagles in 11th place.
Continuing her unbeaten run this season, Ashley Bosco threw the shot put 40’5″ to win that event as Shareese Pierce was third with 28’6″. Bosco also was third in the discus, heaving it 87’1″.
Serenity Thomas got fifth place in the 400 hurdles in 1:14.41. Kyra Crossett was sixth in the pentathlon with 1,700 points as the Bearcats were also sixth in the 4×100 and 4×400. J-E’s Theresa Dristle went 11:30.50 for fifth place in the 3,000.
For the J-E boys, Marion Quigley won the pentathlon, earning 2,802 points to beat Rome Free Academy’s Anthony Coney by 192 points. Nate Jennings took fifth place in the pole vault, clearing 10’6″.
Kenny Williams got sixth place in the mile in 5:04.61 and helped Ethan Kinney, Hugh Schader and Michael Bennick take third place in the 4×800 in 9:19.93.
Solvay’s Dylon Ewers, clearing 6 feet in the high jump, was second to Henninger’s Kwamere White (6’2″). Jaimen Bliss went 40’4 1/2″ to finish fourth in the triple jump as the Bearcats were seventh in the 4×100 in 48.79 seconds.
