Back on Nov. 15, Jack Morse, the long-time local sportscaster on radio and television, passed away at age 84 at his home in Manilus. One of his great loves was covering the area high school sports scene.
As such, a few years back area indoor track and field officials named one of their meets in Morse’s honor, and it evolved into the season opener.
So it was again last week when the Jack Morse Kickoff meet took place Wednesday and Thursday at SRC Arena. Jamesville-DeWitt competed in the Wednesday session and scored 69 points on the boys meet and 61.33 points in the girls meet, each time finishing second to Cicero-North Syracuse.
On the boys side, J-D won the 4×400 as Josh Duby, Gabriel Cuello, Ahviere Reese and Caleb Smith tore to a time of 3:49.32 to beat out runner-up Central Square (3:51.51).
Another relay title came in the sprint medley as Kaleel Boykins, Nate DiDomenico, Alex Cantone and Mario Smith finished in 4:02.63, more than five seconds ahead of the field.
Ben Staples had a winning shot put toss of 39 feet 4 inches as he and Jason Pritts got team honors by throwing 71’3 1/4”. Staples and Pritts got third place in the weight throw, tossing it 70’2” together.
Joe Staples won the individual 55 sprint in 6.92 seconds as he and Haberle Conlon were second (14.09) to C-NS (14.05) in the team portion. Sam Smith topped 9’6” in the pole vault and Nick Dekaney cleared 5’6” in the high jump.
Staples helped the Red Rams finish third in the 4×200 in 1:41.04 as he and Mario Smith were fifth in the long jump, Caleb Smith recorded a triple jump of 38’6” to tie for third place.
Laeticcia Bazile won the individual girls high jump, clearing 5’1” with fewer misses than Cortland’s Malana Booker.
Madeline Foss, Jillian Kordas, Lillian Yengo and Rebecca Kassis were second in the 1,500-meter run in 23:24.25, with the Rams third in the sprint medley in 4:56.10.
Rainer Yaeger and Amber Hamernik took second place in the triple jump with 65’6” and got third place in the long jump, going 28’10” between them. Eva Wisniewski and Lucy Heflin finished fourth in the pole vault.
Bazile and Monica Hernandez were fourth in the 55 hurdles, with Yaeger and Georgiana Paparo fifth in the 55-meter dash as J-D also finished fourth in the 4×400 relay.
In Thursday’s portion of the Morse Meet, Fayetteville-Manilus nearly won the girls competition with 84 points, three behind Baldwinsville (87) as East Syracuse Minoa was sixth with 34 points.
The Hornets won the 4×800 in 11:25.76 and took the 4×400 in 4:31.87 ahead of Christian Brothers Academy, who was second in 4:37.63. F-M also beat the field in the sprint medley in 4:31.06
Isabel Zuber (16’1 3/4”) and Elina Cabrera (15’1 3/4”) went 1-2 in the long jump, with Zuber and Samantha Pynn taking the triple jump by going 67’5 1/2” between them as Natalee Barber and Katie Berge’ were second in the 55 hurdles.
Ani Sydorowyck went 5:17.05 to pull away from CBA’s Isabella Cannizzo (5:26.14) in the 1,500, with ESM’s Rachael Ladd and Mary Roach third and fourth, respectively.
For the ESM girls, Rhiannon Butchko won the high jump, clearing 5’1” to top F-M’s Harper Stoppacher (5 feet), as Butchko and Arianna Brennan got team honors with 9’9” between them. Wren Usiatynski cleared 6’6” in the pole vault to finish second for the Hornets.
ESM was fourth among boys teams on Thursday with 46 points, three head of F-M as CBA got 22 points for eighth place, eight of them from finishing second in the 4×800 in 9:09.71 ahead of the Hornets in third.
Rocky El and Michael Parks were victorious for the Spartans in the 55 hurdles in 16.73 seconds. ESM got second in the 4×400 in 4:01.15, with F-M third here and fifth in the 55 sprint. El then won the triple jump with a top leap of 41’7 3/4”, while Bennett Ferrari cleared 9 feet in the pole vault.
F-M saw Dan Sokolovic throw the shot put 43’7 1/4” to beat all individuals as he and Antonio Fernandez-Cosgrove were second on the team side with 72’8 1/2”. Then Sokolovic won the weight throw with a heave of 50’4”.
CBA was second in the 1,600 relay in 20:35.74 and ESM was third in the 4×200 in 1;42.64, with F-M (4:02.77) holding off CBA (4:03.20) for the runner-up spot in the sprint medley.
