Whether individually, or in relay races, each of the Baldwinsville indoor track and field teams found plenty of success during Wednesday night’s Section III state qualifying meet at Utica College’s Hutton Dome.
Several victories in both the boys and girls divisions mean that the Bees will be well-represented March 2 at Staten Island’s Ocean Breeze Athletic Complex, where the New York State Public High School Athletic Association championships will get decided.
B’ville was victorious in the boys 4×400 relay, with Michael Lawrence, Jon Formoza, Connor Waldron and Garrett Selover going three minutes, 31.07 to pull away from Jamesville-DeWitt (3:33.23) in second place.
On his own, Selover, by finishing second in the 300-meter dash in 36.31 seconds to Vernon-Verona-Sherrill’s Cory Couture (35.28), earned a spot in the state meet.
Later, in the 1,000-meter run, the Bees’ Sam Kellner prevailed in 2:38.11, just ahead of Cicero-North Syracuse’s Nathan Poirier (2:38.34) in a tight race to the finish line. Kellner, Formoza, Jack Michaels and Connor McManus were second (8:12.10) to Liverpool (8:07.43) in the 4×800 relay.
Moving to the girls state qualifier, Lauren Addario was victorious in the triple jump, her best attempt of 37 feet 9 inches just in front of C-NS’s Brooke Blaisdell, who was second with 37’5 1/2″.
Addario also reached the state meet in the 55-meter dash, going 7.37 seconds to finish third, just behind Liverpool’s Haven Hicks (7.34) and Syracuse ITC’s Fannie Kumeh (7.36) as Karen Ekure was fourth in 7.49 seconds.
Justus Holden-Betts won, too, going 1:38.15 in the 600-meter run to hold off Central Valley Academy’s Camryn Stone (1:38.97) for that top spot.
Danielle Marsell was third in the weight throw with a heave of 44’9 3/4″ and qualified for the state meet in that event, also taking ninth in the shot put with 27’5 1/4″.
In the 4×200 relay, Addario, Ekure, Coutney Bostic and Allyson Surowick went 1:48.53, again missing out on the top spot by a slim margin as Liverpool (1:48.15) prevailed. Ekure also finished fifth in the 300 in 43.10 seconds.
Robert Thompson, Ken Svitak, David Mahar and Malik Davis were sixth in the 4×200 relay in 1:38.05. Maya Hewitt tied for sixth in the girls pole vault, clearing 8’6″, with Ryan Micho tying for sixth in the boys high jump by topping 5’8″.
