SYRACUSE – Each of the Jamesville-DeWitt indoor track and field teams would lay claim to the Salt City Athletic Conference Empire division championship Thursday night at SRC Arena, with East Syracuse Minoa second in both divisions.
Avenging a narrow defeat to the Spartans at the Bob Grieve Invitational five days earlier, the boys Red Rams had 120 points to hold off ESM’s 118 in a battle not decided until the final event, the 4×2000 relay.
In that race, J-D got third place in 1:39.86, while ESM was fourth in 1:41.83 – a difference of two points in an event that was otherwise dead-even between the two neighbors.
Depth helped the Rams overcome the star power of the Spartans’ Rocky El, who won three individual events.
In a 55-meter hurdles duel, El, in 7.62 seconds, edged Parks’ 7.66 as they both had to fight off a 7.72 from J-D sprinter Nick Dekaney.
Before that, In the 55-meter dash El won in 6.75 seconds to again hold off Dekaney, who posted 6.80 as Dante Santos (7.00) was fifth. El unleashed a top triple jump of 44 feet 7 inches, more than three feet ahead of any competitor.
J-D had plenty of wins, too, including Caleb Smith going 22′ 3/4″ in the long jump to defeat Parks, who was second with 21’2″, but did win the high jump by clearing 5’10” as Dekaney (5’6″) was fourth.
Smith also won the 300-meter dash, his time of 37.08 seconds winning the 300-meter dash as ESM’s Aidan Hirt (38.12) was third and LeShaun Benjamin fifth. In the triple jump, Smith finished third, going 40’3 1/2″.
Connor Clarkson took the 3,200-meter run in 10:25.39 as he was inches ahead of teammate Ashton Corona (10:25.42) in a 1-2 effort. In the 4×800 relay, Clarkson, Corona, Sam Smith and James Hillers won in 8:55.39 to the 8:59.84 from the Spartans’ quartet of Caleb Byrd, Sol Scofield, Joe Pedrosa-Garcia and Aidan O’Brien.
Hillers finished second in the 1,000-meter run in 2:45.01, with Sam Smith (2:46.23) fourth, but improving to third in the 600-meter run in 1:31.27 as Hillers took third in the 1,600-meter run in 4:56.02, with Clarkson (5:02.58) fourth.
ESM also had Kevin Hasty win the shot put, his toss of 42’1 1/4″ beating a field that included teammate Mekai Carroll (39’2 1/2″) in fourth place as Shaun Gladle was fifth for the Rams in both the shot put and weight throw. Luke Mancini was second in the pole vault, clearing 8 feet.
Hirt, Benjamin, Scofield and Dan Tovar got second in the 4×400 relay in 3:43.27, one-hundredth of a second behind PSLA-Fowler’s 3:43.26 as J-D (3:52.77) was third. Byrd, in 1:33.65, edged Scofield (1:33.90) for fourth place in the 600 as Byrd got fifth place in the 1,000 in 2:46.84
Meanwhile, J-D’s girls, propelled by a sweep of all three relays, picked up 89 points to claim a crowded SCAC Empire meet where the top five teams were separated by just 23 points and ESM, with 74 points, emerged as the runner-up.
Nicolette Militi, Olivia Lemondes, Lindsay Hildreth and Norah Kirch went 4:29.48 to win the 4×400 as ESM had Giana DiPietro, Becca Seargent, Adriana Pena and Lilia Pena second in 4:44.58.
In the 4×800, the Rams saw Militi, Kirch, Hildreth and Emma Deehan prevail in 11:03.31, and in the 4×200 it was Sydney Balotin, Madeline Carter, Jaden Clemons-Butenko and Kaitlyn Laubenstein going 1:54.78 to beat the 1:57.61 from the Spartans’ Amber Hayes, Kaleigh Maloof, Rylie King and Rhiannon Butchko.
Kirch climbed to second place in the 600 in 1:52.06 as Emma Deehan was fifth in 1:55.56. Lucy Heflin, clearing 8 feet, finished third in the pole vault.
Maeve Murphy took third in the long jump with 15’2 1/2″ as Balotin (14’11 1/4″) finished fourth, Murphy also fourth in the 300 in 47.36 seconds while Molly McIntyre was fifth and Anna Smith sixth in the 3,000-meter run.
ESM went 1-2 in the girls 55 hurdles. Arianna Brennen managed to edge Maloof by one-hundredth of a second, Brennen going 9.82 seconds to Maloof’s 9.83.
Butchko was victorious in the high jump, clearing 5 feet to top the 4’8″ from J-D’s duo of Hulbert and Lucy Heflin, while Brennen was fifth here and in the long jump. Maloof was second in the triple jump, going 31’5″ as Hulbert (31′ 1/4″) was fourth for J-D.
Rachael Ladd was third in the 1,500-meter run in 5:27.77, two spots ahead of McIntyre, and got fourth place in the 1,000 in 3:24.74, with King fourth in the 55 sprint in 7.88 seconds as Carter (7.93) edged Balotin (7.96) for fifth place. Lilia Pena got fifth place in the 300.
