SYRACUSE – A winter full of record performances will culminate for East Syracuse Minoa teammates Michael Parks and Rocky El at the indoor track and field state championships March 5 on Staten Island.
A host of area athletes would find success during Wednesday’s Section III state qualifying meet at SRC Arena, but it was Parks and El leading the way.
In the 55-meter hurdles, Parks broke his own school record, going 7.47 seconds in both the first round and the finals. El landed in second place in 7.71 seconds, edging Jamesville-DeWitt senior Nick Dekaney, whose 7.73 also advanced him to the state meet.
Moving to the high jump, Parks prevailed again, clearing 6’4″ as no other competitor could top 6’1″, while in the triple jump no one got close to El, who went 45’8″, more than two feet ahead of the 43’2 3/4″ from Marcellus’ Peter McCaffery.
J-D’s boys team got a victory from Caleb Smith in the long jump. With a top leap of 22’1″, Smith edged Central Valley Academy’s Aaxavier Howard (22′ 1/2″) by half an inch, and El qualified for the state meet, too, finishing third with 21’7 1/2″.
Another ESM athlete advanced to the state meet in the weight throw when Kevin Hasty threw it 55′ 1/2″, joining Liverpool’s Jaylen Graham (59’7″) and Auburn’s Dustin Swartwood (56’11 3/4″) advancing. Hasty also was eighth in the shot put, tossing it 39’1 1/2″.
Caleb Smith was part of the Red Rams’ 4×200 relay team that, with Dekaney, Mike Meskos and Mario Smith, posted 1:36.01 for second place behind West Genesee’s 1:33.31.
Also, the Rams’ 4×400 relay team of Shane Gargiulo, Will Westpfal, Brayden Rivera and Sam Smith were third in 3:41.65 as ESM’s quartet of Aidan Hirt, LeShaun Benjamin, Sol Scofield and Caleb Byrd were fourth in 3:42.07.
Fayetteville-Manlius was well-represented, too, especially in the girls 3,000-meter run, where Hannah Kaercher and Izzie Sullivan almost hit the finish line together. Kaercher won in 9:50.19, one-hundredth of a second ahead of Sullivan’s 9:50.20.
Later, in the 4×800 relay, Kaercher, Sullivan, Amelia Amack and Isabella Adrian went 9:25.14 to earn a state meet berth, even if it was second to Cicero-North Syracuse’s 9:16.42.
Natalee Barber earned a state meet berth with her qualifying-round time of 8.69 seconds in the 55 hurdles, then finished second in the final in 8.77.
In the pole vault, Wren Usitaynski cleared 11 feet and landed in third place. Maya McKenzie was fourth in the 55-meter dash in 7.51 seconds and fourth in the 300-meter dash in 42.66.
On the boys side, F-M had Nolan McGinn, Anthony Otis, Ben Perry and Will Seamans post 8:23.27 in the 4×800, just beaten out by West Genesee’s 8:23.04. Ore Abolade, Connor Ball, Seth Albert and Vincent Hunt were fourth in the 4×200 in 1:38.64, with Abolade ninth in the triple jump and 12th in the long jump.
In the 1,000-meter run, Seamans was second in 2:35.18, reaching the state meet but beaten by Christian Brothers Academy senior Cooper Groat, who won a close race in 2:34.97.
J-D’s girls had Sydney Balotin, Kaitlyn Laubenstein, Jaden Clemons-Butenko and Madeline Carter were fifth in 1:54.53. Lucy Heflin cleared 8 feet for eighth place in the pole vault.
Balotin added a seventh-place long jump of 16′ 1 1/4″ as the Rams were 10th in the 4×400 relay in 4:45.71 and 11th in the 4×800 behind CBA, who finished eighth in 10:31.82.
