For all of the times Baldwinsville track and field athletes made the trip east on Route 31 to Cicero-North Syracuse’s Bragman Stadium, none was more important than the one it took in the second week of June.
State championships were on the line here, and the Bees made quite an impression, earning medals in three events, including the boys and girls portions of the pentathlon.
Senior Kieran Sheridan raced twice in the 400-meter dash. In Friday’s NYSPHSAA Division I (large school) final, Sheridan roared to third place in 48.93 seconds, not far from the winning time of 47.98 seconds posted by Anthony Brodie (Christopher Columbus High).
This advanced Sheridan to the Federation final on Saturday afternoon, and Sheridan improved to a school-record 48.49 seconds to take fourth place. Again, Brodie prevailed, finishing in 47.67 seconds.
As for the girls pentathlon, B’ville’s Adrianna Straughter started with 819 points by going 15.17 seconds in the 100-meter hurdles and posting the best long jump of 18 feet ½ inch to earn 614 points.
Ultimately, Straughter finished fourth with 3,288 points, while at the top Jamesville-DeWitt’s Alexandria Payne earned the state championship by gaining 3,513 points to hold off Uniondale’s Zaria Fuller (3,461) for the title.
Meanwhile, in the boys pentathlon, the Bees’ Nate Jaquint tied for the best high jump, clearing 6’2 ¼” for 705 points while placing sixth in the shot put with a toss of 37’4”.
When two days and five events were done, Jaquint had 3,107 points, which put him in seventh place among Division I competitors and ninth overall. Walt Whitman’s John Poplawski was victorious with 3,555 points.
Finally, B’ville had Justus Holden-Betts compete in the Division I portion of the 400-meter hurdles. With a time of one minute, 7.62 seconds, Holden-Betts finished 13th as Spencerport’s Vanessa Watson went 59.46 seconds to prevail.
