Sheer volume in some events, and consistency in others, helped propel the Westhill girls indoor track and field team to the Section III Class B-1 championship Friday night at Utica College’s Hutton Dome.
The Warriors finished with 167 points, nearly double the total of runner-up Camden, who had 85 points. Vernon-Verona-Sherrill (57 points) was third as Solvay tied Central Valley Academy for fifth with 26 points.
On the track, Westhill went 1-2-3 in the 55-meter hurdles, where Ashley Heffernan won in 9.21 seconds, Caitlyn McIntyre (9.79 seconds) beat out Lauren Holstein (9.81) for third place and Lauren Marshall (10.13) finished fifth.
It was the same in the pole vault, where Westhill had six of the top eight finishers. Heffernan won, clearing 8 feet 6 inches, with Ella Markham second at 8 feet. Quinn Mannion, clearing 7 feet beat out Bendall and Emma Shampine for fifth place.
Westhill also did well in relays, starting in the 4×400, where Lauren Bendall, Kendra MacCaull, Katherine Evans and Marisa Rosati went four minutes, 28.04 seconds to beat out Homer’s 4:32.56. Evans, in 5:14.79, beat out Liz Kessler (5:15.08) for fourth place in the 1,500-meter run.
Later, in the 4×200, the Warriors won again, this time with McIntyre, Evans, Bendall and Kennedy Rose pairing up to go 1;57.71 to again hold off Homer (1:58.59) for that top spot.
Brigid Heinrich won the weight throw, heaving it 37’6″ to beat teammate Lennah Abraham’s 35’5″, with Abraham also second in the shot put by tossing it 29’2 1/2″ as Ryan Murphy (27’8 1/4″) was fourth and Heinrich sixth.
Ashley Bolesh, an eighth-grader, had a winning triple jump of 33’6 1/2″, with Lauren Marshall fourth by going 31’9 1/4″. Heffernan finished third in the long jump with 15’4″, half an inch ahead of Bolesh (15’3 1/2″) in fourth place.
Angie Mesa-Espinosa took third place in the 55-meter dash in 7.83 seconds, with Caitlyn McIntyre fifth in 8.04 seconds. Mesa-Espinosa got fourth place in the 300-meter dash in 44.18 seconds, while Bolesh (44.56) took sixth place.
Haylei Coolican was third in the 3,000-meter run in 11:29.12, with Liz Kessler third in the 1,000-meter run in 3:15.20. Coolican, MacCaull, Kylie Nowicki and Ashley Wiezalis finished second in the 4×800 relay in 10:49.52.
Solvay’s Kyra Crossett gave her team a win in the high jump by clearing 5 feet as Westhill’s Julia Lasher was third (4’6″) and Emily O’Reilly was fourth.
The Bearcats’ Erica Bagozzi cleared 7’6″ for fourth place in the pole vault, with Sabrina Garnett unleashing a third-place weight throw of 33’3″ and fifth in the shot put with 27’2 1/2″. Isabella Lambert was fifth in both the long jump (15’3 1/2″) and triple jump (31’9″).
Over in the girls sectional Class B-2 meet, Marcellus claimed fifth place with 38 points and Jordan-Elbridge was sixth with 23 points, well off Clinton’s winning total of 152 points.
The Mustangs’ Julianna Szczech contended in the pole vault, clearing 9 feet, the same as Canastota’s Laura Suppa, but Suppa had fewer misses. Sophia Shaw added a second-place high jump of 4’8″.
Delaney Manahan, Alaura Cushman, Emma Holzwarth and Caroline Trytek were second in the 4×400 in 4:24.61 to Canastota’s 4:20.61 as J-E got seventh place in 4:53.38.
That same Mustangs quartet made it to second place in the 4×200 in 1:55.04 behind Skaneateles (1:52.31), again with J-E seventh (2:05.18) as Brielle McShane was sixth in the 600 in 1:52.29 and Elle Mahoney sixth in the shot put.
For J-E, Abby Burns, Vassianna Klock, Coral Uhle and Hannah Fichter paired up to win the 4×800 in 10:31.86, chased by, among others, Marcellus, who finished fourth in 11:15.43.
The Eagles’ best individual finish came from Klock, who was second in the 600 in 1:48.72, just behind the winning 1:47.86 from Clinton’s Emmeline MacPherson. Uhle took fourth place in the 1,500 in 5:24.87, with Kyra White sixth in the pole vault, clearing 7’6″, and Tatiana Parkolap seventh in the high jump.
A day earlier, at SRC Arena, West Genesee took part in the Class AA sectional meet, and only managed 12 points as Cicero-North Syracuse (129 points) held off Liverpool (117.5 points) to take the title.
Mikealya DeJesus, Olivia Lockwood, Mia Mitchell and Caitlin Mills finished fourth in the 4×400 in 4:25.93, this before Mills finished fifth in the 55 sprint in 7.66 seconds. Lockwood, Mitchell, Alana Eastman and Natalie Buckhout ran the 4×800 in 10:30.69 to finish sixth.
Abby Kuppinger needed 1:45.23 to finish sixth in the 600 and was seventh (45.08 second) in the 300, also pairing with Mills, DeJesus and Sandy Gardino for a fourth-place time of 1:52.49 in the 4×200. Olivia Becker was eighth in the 55 hurdles in 9.78 seconds.
