Mia Grasso’s quartet of individual titles helped propel the Skaneateles girls track and field team to a third-place finish in Wednesday’s Section III Class B-2 championships at Canastota High School.
Grasso got going in the 100-meter dash, where in 12.85 seconds she edged Institute of Technology Central’s Fannie Kumeh (12.86) at the line as Emme Conan finished third in 13.10 seconds.
Moving to the 400-meter hurdles, Grasso pulled away to win in 1:04.53, more than four seconds ahead of CBA’s Cory Knox (1:08.91). In the 200-meter dash, Grasso got a win in 26.62 seconds, chased by Maddie Peterson, who was third in 27.12 seconds.
To cap off this remarkable day, Grasso prevailed in the high jump, where by clearing 5 feet 1 inch she got ahead of Cazenovia’s Paige Hunt (5 feet) and stayed there. Lyda Buck tied for seventh with 4’6” to go with a sixth-place pole vault of 8 feet.
All told, the Lakers had 82 points (40 of them earned by Grasso), topping everyone except Clinton, who roared to the title with 145 points, and Cazenovia, who finished second with 95 points.
Conan and Peterson helped Eva Vitsaxaki and Graeson Landsberg go 51.73 seconds to win the 4×100 relay, well clear of runner-up Holland Patent (53.06) and the field. In the 4×400, Peterson, Conan, Landsberg and Melissa Biver finished in 4:16.99, second to Clinton’s winning 4:13.57.
Natalie Condon got fourth place in the 800-meter run in 2:26.85 as Condon, Hope Cross-Jaya, Nicole Derosa and Georgia McSwain were fifth in the 4×800 relay in 10:45.90. Sharla Dart was fifth in the shot put, tossing it 29’2 ½”
Bella Capozza was seventh in the 100 hurdles in 18.50 seconds, while McSwain was seventh in the 2,000-meter steeplechase in 8:22.53 and Derosa was eighth in the 3,000-meter run in 12:04.19.
Meanwhile, in the boys sectional B-2 meet, Skaneateles earned 20.5 points to finish ninth in the 11-team field as Cazenovia (107 points) edged Clinton (102.5) and Hannibal (101) in a tight race for the title.
Brahm Malcolm went 16.02 seconds in the 110 high hurdles, beating everyone except Holland Patent’s Eddie Callahan, who won in 14.86 seconds and took three other events (400 hurdles, long jump, triple jump).
Nicola Kunz was seventh in 17.35 seconds to go with an eighth-place time of 1:02.92 in the 400 hurdles, but did better in the high jump, clearing 5’6” to tie for sixth place as Malcolm tied for 10th.
Luke Rathgeb climbed to fourth place in the mile in 4:46.02, with Joe Norris eighth (4:52.08) and Caleb Bender ninth (4:55.23), while Rathgeb went on to get fifth place in the 3,200-meter run in 10:47.55.
In the 4×100, Matt Leveroni, Taj Blackiston, Jon Metz and Cross Bianchi finished fourth in 47.49 seconds as Leveroni needed 24.47 seconds to finish fifth in the 200.
Connor Gell, Nate Azzam, Sam McClintic and Jacob French were seventh in the 4×800 in 9:24.85. Bender was ninth and Norris 11th in the 800, while Leveroni was 10th in the 100 in 12.10 seconds and Gell 11th in the 400-meter dash in 55.18 seconds.
Matt Persampieri needed 11:16.44 to finish seventh in the 3,000 steeplechase. Norris, Gell, Azzam and Levi Carvalho were eighth (3:59.75) in the 4×400.
