SYRACUSE – In their own ways, and with their own special performance, area indoor track and field athletes flourished during Wednesday’s Section III state qualifying meet at SRC Arena.
With a series of victories, top times and distances, stars from West Genesee, Westhill and Skaneateles all booked trips to Staten Island’s Ocean Breeze Athletic Complex for the March 5 state championships.
West Genesee won two different boys relays. First, the 4×200 quartet of Dom Burris, Bryce Bort, Payton Manipole and Chris Moser went one minute, 33.31 seconds to beat runner-up Jamesville-DeWitt (1:36.01) by nearly three seconds.
Later, in the 4×800, Peter McMahon, Aidan Walsh, Casey Comny and Kevin Moser paired up, going 8:23.04 to edge an 8:23.27 from Fayetteville-Manlius. Westhill’s quartet of Brian Allen, Brian Kenny, Drew O’Reilly and Brandon Mulholland were third in 8:24.12.
Individually, Chris Moser won the 300-meter dash, his 37.18 seconds just ahead of the 37.38 from Utica Proctor’s Christian Cuevas.
McMahon posted a 3,200-meter run time of 9:30.57 that put him in the state meet, while Burris also was able to advance to the state meet in the 55-meter dash thanks to his third-place time of 6.74 seconds, adding a fifth in the long jump by going 20 feet 8 inches as Bort (19’11”) was ninth.
For Westhill, the big effort came from Angie Mesa-Espinosa, who advanced to the state meet in three different events.
Helping to win the 4×200, Mesa-Espinosa joined Kate Bendall, Ashley Bolesh and Elle Herrera to finish in 1:46.67, more than two seconds ahead of runner-up Liverpool’s 1:48.94. WG finished seventh in 1:56.19. A second-place finish in the 55-meter dash in 7.44 seconds also meant advancement as Herrera was fifth in 7.67.
Bolesh got a victory of her own in the 600-meter run, posting 1:40.78 to edge South Lewis’ Lexi Bernard (1:41.13) at the line. Bendall was fourth in the high jump, going 16’5 1/4″, and fifth in the 55 hurdles in 9.17 seconds.
Kennedy Rose, Olivia Holowinski, Emma DeSanto and Molly Thompson were third in the 4×400 relay in 4:29.77, with WG sixth in 4:32.62. The Wildcats did best in the 4×800, where Claire Griffin, Peyton Long, Zoe Maupin and Chloe Fietze were third in 10:11.13.
Skaneateles had its top sprinter, Kyla Palmer, win again in the girls 300-meter dash, going 41.23 seconds as Mesa-Espionsa was third in a state-qualifying 41.93. Also for the Lakers, Jack Phillips was eighth in the boys 600 in 1:31.17.
Meanwhile, in the 1,000-meter run Jordan-Elbridge senior Vassianna Klock earned her state meet berth by finishing third in a qualifying time of 3:00.96. Tatianna Parkolap was fifth in the high jump, clearing 4’10”.
Marcellus saw Peter McCaffery rise to second place in the triple jump, going 43′ 2 3/4″ as teammate Joe Striffler was fourth with 42’6″. Only East Syracuse MInoa’s Rocky El beat McCaffery with a best attempt of 45’8″.
The Mustangs ad a fifth-place finish in the boys 4×400 as Ryan Constable, Colin Gerbsch, Mason Grieb and Xander Szalach posted 3:45.74, two spots ahead of WG (3:51.33) in seventh place.
McCaffery, clearing 5’8″, tied for seventh in the high jump to go with a 10th (19’7 1/4″) in the long jump. The girls Mustangs had Heidi Steigerwald finish ninth in the high jump, topping 4’10”. On the boys side for Westhill, Carter Buckman finished third in the pole vault, clearing 10’6″.
