Having the New York State Public High School Athletic Association track and field championships at a facility close to home produced an inspired effort from Section III athletes.
From the handful of championships won at Cicero-North Syracuse’s Bragman Stadium by the likes of Jeremiah Willis (boys long jump and triple jump), Alexandria Payne (girls pentathlon) and Tully’s Brooke Rauber (girls 2,000-meter steeplechase) to medals from area athletes from several schools, it was quite a weekend.
Solvay senior Ashley Bosco got two medals from the girls shot put. In the NYSPHSAA Division II (small school) event on Friday, she tossed it 42 feet 6 ¾ inches and took fourth place as Valhalla’s SamanthaMorillo won with 44’10 ¼”.
A day later, in the Federation event, Bosco nearly beat everyone. She improved to 42’9 ¾”and beat everyone except Morrillo, who put up 44’4 ¼” this time. Also, Bosco was ahead of Rome Free Academy’s Sarah Crockett (41’2”) in fourth place.
Jordan-Elbridge senior Marion Quigley again competed in the boys pentathlon. Over two days, Quigley accumulated 3,087 points, putting him in fourth place in Division II, but not far from the winning 3,170 points in Division II from Dansville’s Jacob Wadsworth.
The difference between those two came in the long jump, where Quigley earned 550 points, but Wadsworth got 684 points to move out of Quigley’s reach, though Quigley did have the second-fastest 110 hurdles time (15.55 seconds) of anyone.
West Genesee senior Carly Benson had a terrific showing in the girls 1,500-meter run, Benson posting a time of four minutes, 36.50 seconds to finish fourth in Division I (large schools) and eighth overall, though it was far behind North Rockland superstar sophomore Katelyn Tuohy, who set a state record winning in 4:14.45 a day after setting the state mark in the 3,000-meter run (9:09.71).
Also for the Wildcats, Emily Young finished 12th in Division I in the 800-meter run in 2:14.50. And WG’s 4×100 relay team of Caitlin Mills, Amina Mambambu, Sandy Gardino and Megan Delia finished 14th in 50.47 seconds as Rush-Henrietta (46.89 seconds) prevailed, led by Lanae-Tava Thomas, who also won the 100 and 200-meter sprints in both NYSPHSAA and Federation divisons.
