A new season of high school track and field is underway, with most of the area’s top teams competing against large-school foes in last Wednesday’s cold, windy conditions.
That included Fayetteville-Manlius and East Syracuse Minoa together in a three-team meet involving Baldwinsville. Both girls sides would defeat the Bees – the Hornets doing so 85.5-46.5, the Spartans 67-65, as F-M handled ESM 83-49.
For F-M, Fiona Mejico was victorious in the 100 hurdles in 18.62 seconds and the 400 hurdles in 1:14.92, while Claire Walters went 4:56.47 at 1,500 meters to beat Phoebe White’s 5:02.02. Mejico and White helped the Hornets’ 4×400 relay team prevail in 4:28.76.
White was tops at 800 meters in 2:30.73 to Walters’ 2:34.75 as Grace Kaercher took the 3,000-meter run in 10:59.17 over Emily Cook (11:44.26) and Elizabeth Bansbach won the 400-meter dash in 1:05.53 over Claire Snyder (1:09.24).
In field events, the Hornets had Abigail Zuber go 15 feet 8 ½ inches in the long jump, with Samantha Pynn’s 31’7” enough to win the triple jump. ESM had Rhianna Butchko clear 4’8” to win the high jump over Jennah Ferrari (4’6”) as Mackenzie Bourdon had a first-place shot put toss of 31’7”.
The boys meet was a bit different, F-M again beating ESM 80-51, but both sides falling to B’ville as the Hornets lost 69-63 and the Spartans took an 81-56 defeat.
F-M featured Peyton Geehrer running the mile in 4:46.63 over Matt Tripp’s 4:49.12 and Geehrer also winning the 3,200-meter run in 10:01.15 over Sam Otis (10:23.40) as Garrett Brennan won the 800 in 2:08.10. Corey Gallagher prevailed in the 200 in 25.89 seconds.
ESM, for its part, had Rocky El edge Miles Riggins, 16.13 seconds to 16.14, in the 110 hurdles, with Riggins recovering to take the 100 sprint in 11.75 seconds and Conner Hillman winning the 400 hurdles in 1:05.31 over the Hornets’ Jason Cavanaugh (1:06.35).
Ermin Alemic, with a triple jump of 40’10”, had a 1-2 finish with El (39’4”) as he also won a close race in the long jump, Alemic’s 19’3” one inch ahead of the 19’2” from B’ville’s Robert Thompson.
Elijah Buck, in the shot put, threw it 40’9” to seize first place over F-M’s Dan Sokolovic (38’7”) as Sawyer Dereszynski was second in the shot put with 102’11”, two inches behind B’ville’s Steven Miller, who won with 103’1”.
Jamesville-DeWitt hosted Liverpool that same day, unable to win on either side against the powerful Warriors, though the boys Red Rams had plenty of highlights in its 77-55 defeat.
Haberle Conlon won the 100 sprint in 11.5 seconds, with Mike Potaminaos (12.0) and Nico Stella (12.1) completing a 1-2-3 sweep. Another sweep in the 200 saw Conlon, in 23.9 seconds, top Andrew Balotin (24.5) as Potamianos was third.
Fidel Martinez took his turn at the top in the 400 sprint in 52.7 seconds, with Potamianos (55.0) the runner-up as Martinez and Conlon led the Rams to a win in the 4×400 in 3:48.5.
Moving to field events, James Richer’s discus throw of 118’5” topped Liverpool’s Robert Sinesi (112’3”) as Mario Smith had a second-place long jump of 18’9’1/2” and Nick Dekaney topped 5’4” for second place in the high jump.
The J-D girls lost 100-31 to Liverpool, only winning a pair of field events as Denise Yaeger went 33’8” in the triple jump and Laeticcia Bazile topping 5’1” to win the high jump. Yaeger’s 16’5 ½” long jump was second to the Warriors’ Marissa Baskin, who went 18’4 ½”.
Monica Hernandez-Olivera was twice a runner-up, going 17.3 seconds in the 100 hurdles and 1:16.5 in the 400 hurdles as Sophia Vinciguerra was second in the 1,500 in 5:09 flat and Jenna VanVraken went 1:09 flat for second place in the 400 sprint.
