SYRACUSE – Less than two points separated the East Syracuse Minoa and Jamesville-DeWitt boys indoor track and field teams at the end of Saturday’s afternoon session of the Bob Grieve Memorial Invitational at SRC Arena.
And it was the Spartans taking the title with 137.5 points to the 136 for the Red Rams, ESM again relying on its star duo of Rocky El and Michael Parks.
El unleashed a top triple jump of 45 feet 7 ½ inches, with Sol Scofield third (36’6 3/4”), and also was victorious in the 55-meter dash in 6.79 seconds to the 7.02 for the Rams’ Dante Santos in second place as Aidan Hirt (7.13) was fourth for the Spartans.
Parks went 7.57 seconds in the 55 hurdles to win a terrific duel with J-D’s Nick Dekaney, who was second in 7.81 as Murad Kirman was seventh for ESM, gaining two vital points. Then Parks won the high jump by clearing 5’10” as Dekaney (5’6”) was third.
Also, Caleb Byrd won for ESM in the 1,000-meter run in 2:54.31, going 1-2 with Joe Pedrosa-Garcia (2:54.53) as J-D’s Chris Donaghue was third and Anthony Cawley fifth.
Kevin Hasty won the weight throw, heaving it 57’10” as no one else broke the 54-foot mark to go with his third (38’8 1/2”) in the shot put. Scofield got third place in the 600-meter run in 1:33.09, with Luke Mancini fifth in the pole vault.
J-D countered with a 1-2 finish in the 3,200-meter run, Ashton Corona prevailing in 10:38.94 over Connor Clarkson’s 10:46.42. James Hillers was second in the 1,600-meter run in 4:50.51, with teammate Isaiah Sternberg fifth.
Hillers, paired with Clarkson, Anthony Cawley and Sam Smith, won the 4×800 relay in 9:00.23, beating out the Spartans’ second-place 9:08.11 that included Scofield, Byrd and Pedrosa-Garcia.
Smith, Ryan Carter, Will Westpfal and Brayden Rivera went 3:43.64 in the 4×400 relay to hold off ESM’s 3:44.74 which featured Hirt, Dan Tovar, Luke Mancini and LeShaun Benjamin.
And to complete a relay sweep, the Rams had Dekaney, Rivera, Caleb Smith and Mike Meskos put up a time of 1:36.68 to beat the Spartans’ 1:37.71, even with Parks and El in the race.
Caleb Smith won for the Rams in the 300-meter dash in 37.30 seconds, with Tovar third in 39.24, and Smith went on to post a winning long jump of 20’11” as Santos (18’3”) was fourth. Mario Smith was fifth in the triple jump.
In the girls edition of the Grieve meet, J-D got the best of it against ESM, earning second place with 84.5 points behind Cazenovia (162) as the Spartans were fourth with 76 points as the Rams swept all the relays.
J-D won the 4×400 as Nicolette Militi, Olivia Lemondes, Lindsey Hildreth and Norah Kirch went 4:28.16, easily clearing a field that included ESM (4:44.77) in third place.
Kirch, Militi, Hildreth and Molly McIntyre were victorious in the 4×800 in 11:08.12, with ESM third, and in the 4×200 Madeline Carter, Sydney Balotin, Jaden Clemons-Butenko and Kaitlyn Laubenstein won in 1:57.51 to Cazenovia’s 1:57.94, with ESM third in 1:58.17.
McIntyre was second in the 3,000-meter run in 12:19.43, with Anna Smith fourth in the 1,000 and Emma Deehan fourth in the 600. Claire Huyck was fourth in the weight throw and Brooke Hulbert fifth in the triple jump.
ESM had Rachael Ladd take second in the 1,500-meter run in 5:29.08, where Anna Smith was sixth. Arianna Brennen had a second-place long jump of 14’8” as J-D had Maeve Murphy third and Balotin fourth.
Brennen cleared 5 feet and was second in the high jump, matched by Rhiannon Butchko in third place. Kaleigh Maloof was second in the triple jump with 32’4 1/4”.
Rylie King took third in the 55 sprint in 7.82 seconds. Brennen, in 9.87 seconds, edged Kaleigh Maloof (9.91) for third place in the 55 hurdles, with Lilia Pena fourth in the 300.
