CENTRAL NEW YORK – Whether close to home, or a bit further away, area high school indoor track and field teams found a way to flourish on the last weekend before Christmas.

Fayetteville-Manlius and East Syracuse Minoa dueled one another in Saturday’s morning session of the George Constantino Memorial Invitational, with the girls Hornets victorious and the boys Spartans only trailing Marcellus.

F-M’s girls won with 116 points, which came from events like the 3,000-meter run where Hannah Kaercher went under 10 minutes, winning in 9:58.79 as Izzie Sullivan was second (10:05.36) and Amelia Amack third in 10:14.23

Natalee Barber, in 9.35 seconds, beat the field in the 55-meter hurdles, with ESM’s Kaleigh Maloof (9.78) in third place before going to the long jump and prevailing with a leap of 15 feet 2 1/2 inches as the Spartans’ Arianna Brennen was third with 14’11 1/4″ and Elina Cabrera was fourth (14’4 1/4″) for the Hornets.

Maya McKenzie won the 300-meter dash in 43.20 seconds as Isabella Adrian was fifth. McKenzie, Barber, Elrose Hanlon and Brigid Teaken won the 4×200 relay in 1:52.72. Cabrera and Maloof both went 30’2 3/4″ in the triple jump to share third place.

ESM’s best finish came from Rhiannon Butchko clearing 5 feet for second place in the high jump. Wren Usiatynski, clearing 10’6″, was third in the pole vault. Adrian took third in the 1,000-meter run in 3:11.63, with Maria Khalifeh fourth and Debbie Lucchetti fifth.

The ESM boys earned 91.5 points to edge F-M (89 points) for second place behind Baldwinsville, getting two wins from Rocky El, who had a top long jump of 20’2″ and then soared to first in the triple jump with 44’1 1/4″ as Luke Mancini (36’3 3/4″) got fourth place.

Michael Parks, second in the high jump with 5’8″ and fourth in the long jump, pulled away to win the 55 hurdles in 7.66 seconds. Aidan O’Brien was second in the 1,000 in 2:58.29 as teammate Joseph Pedrosa-Garcia was fourth in 2:59.25.

Aidan Hirt got third place in the 300 in 39.12 seconds and helped the Spartans finish third in the 4×400 relay in 3:53.24. Kevin Hasty threw the shot put 40’8 1/2″ to finish third, matching his effort in the weight throw, where his top attempt went 44’11 1/2″.

On the Hornets’ side, Nolan McGinn, in 10:06.67, edged teammate Anthony Otis (10:06.80) in the 3,200-meter run  Will Seamans won the 1,600-meter run in 4:41.26, with Jackson Matthews fourth.

Seamans, Cooper Dereszynski, Mason Weires and Trevor Kurkin went 9:08.85 to finish second in the 4×800 relay, with Ore Abolade, Vincent Hunt, Seth Albert and Carter Husted second in the 4×200 in 1:41.44.

Liam Malgieri was fourth in the weight throw. Seth Albert took fourth in the 55 sprint, with Kurkin fifth in the 600-meter run.

In the afternoon session of the Constantino meet, Christian Brothers Academy finished fifth on the girls side and eighth on the boys side, where Darien Williams, Cameron Smith, Quinten Lewis and Chris Zajdel won the 4×200 in 1:39.44.

Darien Williams got second in the 55 sprint in exactly seven seconds, with Chris Zajdel second in the 300 in 38.63 seconds as Bishop Grimes’ Sean Moran finished fourth in the 1,000.

Amazin Spencer gained fourth place in the 55 sprint in 8.3 seconds, with Mary Sullivan fourth in the 600 as Bella Cannizzo was fifth in the 1,500 and Grace Fletcher fifth in the 300, also helping the Brothers take third in the 4×400 in 4:35.92 and third in the 4×200 in 2:02.93.

All of this came after the third Mohawk Valley ITA meet of the season at Utica College where Jamesville-DeWitt went to the front of the standings on the boys side with 89 points amid a massive 33-team field.

Nick Dekaney beat the field in the 55 hurdles in 8.08 seconds before he joined Caleb Smith, Adam Rigdon and Dante Santos to win the 4×200 in 1:36.96.

Smith earned his own win in the long jump, going 21’11 1/2″, more than two feet ahead of the field, also tying Dekaney for fourth in the high jump as they both cleared 5’8″.

Sam Smith was second in the 600 in 1:30.07 as Shane Gargiulo was sixth, with Mike Meskos sixth in the 300. Smith, Gargiulo, James Hillers and Anthony Cawley were second in the 4×800 in 8:57.45.

Ashton Corona had a second-place clocking of 2:54.18 in the 1,000. Hillers went to third place in the 3,200 in 10:46.23. Connor Clarkson was fourth in the 1,600 in 4:54.03.

J-D’s girls were fifth in that same meet with 42.5 points, the Rams getting second place in the 4×400 in 4:49.86 to go with a fourth in the 4×800.

Nicolette Militi ran the 1,000 in 3:20.99 to gain fourth place. Sydney Balotin, part of a third-place 4×200 relay (1:55.80), took fifth in the 55 sprint and fifth in the long jump, with Anna Smith sixth in the 3,000. Lucy Heflin shared fourth in the pole vault and tied for fifth in the high jump.