Wherever junior Caleb Smith went in Friday’s Section III Class A championship meet, he was finding his way to first place, or getting close to it.
By doing so, Smith led Jamesville-DeWitt to the team title, the Red Rams finishing with 112 points as host East Syracuse Minoa had a strong showing, too, earning second place with 76 points.
Smith twice was victorious in field events, unleashing a top high jump of 6 feet 1 inch and going 21’8 1/4″ in the long jump, where no one else broke the 20-foot mark.
Having finished second in the triple jump by going 40’8 1/4″, Smith also paired with Nick Dekaney, Mario Smith and Hapreet Duggal to win the 4×100 relay in 45.05 seconds, more than two seconds ahead of the field.
It was ESM’s Rocky El beating Smith in the triple jump, going 44’3 3/4″ to go with his other victory in the 110 high hurdles in 14.97 seconds ahead of Dekaney (15.57) in second place as J-D’s Sean Rigdon (17.77) was fifth. El also finished second in the 100-meter dash in 11.38 seconds with teammate Dan Tovar (11.84) fifth.
But J-D also did quite well in distance races, starting with the opening 4×800 relay where Nate Rindfuss, Jacob Cottet, Jack Moore and Sam Smith shattered the nine-minute mark, winning in 8:50.45 as ESM (9:17.41) got fourth place.
Also, the Rams went 1-2 in the 3,000-meter steeplechase, where Ashton Corona raced to victory in 11:40.9 and Rindfuss got second place in 11:46.4. Moore went 2:08.39 in the 800-meter run to get second place, with Connor Clarkson second in the 3,200-meter run in 10:47.81 and Cottet fifth.
Shane Gargiulo took third in the 400 hurdles in 1:02.12. James Hillers was fourth in the 1,600-meter run in 4:54.85, with Smith sixth in the 400-meter dash in 55.34 seconds.
ESM also had Ferrari finish second in the pole vault, clearing 10’6″, while Aidan Hirt go third place in the 400-meter dash in 23.38 seconds, ahead of Tovar (23.76) In fifth as Dekaney (23.81) was sixth.
Kevin Hasty earned 14 points through the throwing events for the Spartans, heaving the shot put 40’9″ to finish second and the discus 116’10” to take third place as Todd Durantini was fifth (37’1 3/4″) in the shot put.
Hirt, Tovar, Ferrari and Sol Scofield were second in the 4×400 relay in 3:42.11, just beating J-D (3:42.36) in third place as Joseph Pedrosa-Garcia took fifth in the 400 hurdles in 1:06.45.
A day earlier, in the sectional Class B-1 championships at Oneida, Christian Brothers Academy had distance runners Michael McMahon and Cooper Groat both earn victories.
McMahon roared to a time of 9:46.35 in the 3,200, well clear of Westhill’s Drew O’Reilly (10:30.99) for the top spot, while in the 800 Groat registered a time of 2:01.81, easily beating Vernon-Verona-Sherrill’s Lucas Croft (2:06.08) in the runner-up spot.
On the girls side for CBA, Kayla Newman finished third in the 800 in 2:30.98, with Grace Fletcher fifth in the 400 sprint in 1:05.44 and Claire Krueger sixth in the 1,500 in 5:42.63.
