For a long time, the East Syracuse Minoa girls track and field team had to look up at the standings where its neighbors from Jamesville-DeWitt ruled over them.
That changed in Wednesday’s three-team SCAC Empire division battle, where the Spartans defeated the Red Rams 75-66, though both sides lost to Central Square.
First place in the league was at stake, and the Redhawks (7-0) grabbed it by topping ESM 74-67 and J-D 95-46, though the Spartans did not mind since it finally got the best of the Rams head-to-head.
Sophie Hartz led ESM with a pair of individual titles, taking the 100-meter dash in 13.0 seconds and going 15 feet 7 inches in the long jump. Lailani Carrion added a first-place finish in the 400-meter hurdles in 1:03.15.
The Spartans won most of the field events as Sara Bourdon threw the shot put 31’4” and Sophia Jackson heaved the discus 90’7 ¾”, with Maria Markert able to clear 8’6” in the pole vault.
J-D claimed three events, two of them from Denise Yaeger, who ran the 200-meter dash in 28.2 seconds and went 33’11 ½” in the triple jump as Laeticcia Bazile topped 5’1” in the high jump.
Central Square was led by Ella Dolce, victorious in the 100 and 400 hurdles, and Jillian Howe, who ran to titles in the 1,500 and 3,000-meter distance events and also helped the Redhawks win the 4×800 relay.
It was different in the boys meet, for here J-D did turn back ESM 80-61, though it also lost to Central Square 76-65 as the Redhawks also got past the Spartans 77-64.
In this showdown of the top three SCAC Empire division sides, each of them won plenty of events, with J-D having Haberle Conlon take the 200 in 23.25 seconds and Fidel Martinez blaze to first in the 400 sprint in 51.98 seconds.
Martinez and Conlon paired with Mike Potamianos and Nick Mannion to help the Rams prevail in the 4×400 relay in 3:34.29 as James Richer was victorious in the shot put with a toss of 46’4”. J-D also had Andrew Balotin, Caleb Smith, Juan Smith and Reinaldo Colon take the 4×100 relay in 45.72 seconds.
Meanwhile, ESM’s Myles Riggins again pulled off his signature double, running the 100 sprint in 11.15 seconds after he was first in the 110 high hurdles in 15.59 seconds.
Rocky El, in the triple jump, won for the Spartans with a top attempt of 41’7”, while Elijah Buck unleashed a discus throw of 128’9”. Gabe Chisari led Central Square with wins in the mile (4:36.4) and 3,200-meter run (10:14.38) and helped in the 4×800 relay (8:36.43).
