CHITTENANGO – Area high school track and field teams would claim a wide array of honors when they made the short trip to compete in Saturday’s Chittenango Invitational.
And it was the Jamesville-DeWitt boys emerging as champions in a field of more than 25 teams, earning 67.5 points to edge runner-up Baldwinsville (64) as Fayetteville-Manlius was third with 60 points.
F-M’s girls team would score 70 points in the Chittenango meet, second behind the 93 from Cicero-North Syracuse, while East Syracuse Minoa had a strong showing, too, getting third place with 59 points.
To lead the boys Red Rams, Caleb Smith accumulated 2,982 points to win the five-event pentathlon, more than 400 points clear of Cato-Meridian’s Merritt Cox and setting a school record, too.
In the 110 high hurdles, Nick Dekaney prevailed in 15.44 seconds, the only time under 16 seconds as F-M’s Connor Ball was fourth with 17.06. Max McCaul got second in the 100-meter dash in 11.61 seconds, just behind the 11.58 from B’ville’s Brandon Levin.
Dekaney, McCaul, Harpreet Duggal and Brayden Rivera teamed up for the Rams as it won the 4×100 relay in 45.64 seconds, edging Syracuse ITC’s 45.71 as Christian Brothers Academy finished fifth.
Sam Smith, in the 800-meter run, went 2:01.71 to beat F-M’s Ben Perry (2:04.57) as James Hillers was third in 2:06.27. Smith also helped the Rams take second in the 4×400 relay in 3:39.82.
For F-M, Connor Ball got a victory in the boys 400 hurdles, his time of 59.02 seconds the only one under a minute as J-D saw Shane Gargiulo finish fourth in 1:02.95. Denim Hall was victorious in the high jump, clearing 6 feet as Dekaney (5’8”) tied for fifth.
Perry, Nolan McGinn, Will Seamans and Trevor Kurkin were victorious in the 4×800 relay in 8:20.08, more than 11 seconds ahead of the field.
Daniel Patrick was second in the 3,000-meter steeplechase in 10:50.07, while Seamans was third in the Fleet Feet Mile in 4:23.72, just ahead of CBA’s Cooper Groat (4:26.43) in fourth place as Anthony Otis was fifth for the Hornets.
CBA got its best individual finish from Chris Zajdel, who ran to second in the 400-meter dash in 51.73 seconds as Kurkin finished sixth.
ESM’s girls team saw Arianna Brennen earn 2,364 points in the other pentathlon, holding off another Cato athlete, Maggie Brown, who was second with 2,198.
Akuot Kuany was victorious in the 100 hurdles in 15.99 seconds ahead of the third-place 17.32 from F-M’s Natalee Barber, and also took second in the high jump, clearing 5 feet.
Aryanna Finkelstein had a second-place shot put toss of 31’3 3/4”, just behind the 31’9” from Fulton’s Allison Standish. The Spartans were second (51.82 seconds) to Liverpool (51.43) in the 4×100 relay, also sixth the 4×400.
Evani McDuffie was fourth in the 100 sprint in 13.44 seconds as Sophia Jackson threw the discus 89’7” for fourth place, Margaret Mading was fourth in the triple jump (32 feet) and Rachael Ladd took fifth in the steeplechase.
Where the F-M girls excelled was in the featured Fleet Feet Mile, where Hannah Kaercher earned the victory in a time of 4:56.96, just ahead of teammate Izzie Sullivan, who got second in 4:59.42 as Amelia Amack (5:08.56) was fourth.
Kaercher, Sullivan, Amack and Isabella Adrian paired up to help the Hornets win the 4×800 in 9:32.03, with no one else breaking the 10-minute mark.
Barber got third place in the long jump with 15’3 1/2”. Maya McKenzie went 13.40 seconds for second place in the 100 sprint. Debbie Lucchetti was fourth in the 2,000 steeplechase.
