CENTRAL SQUARE – Neighbors and rivals would both emerge with victories from Thursday’s Salt City Athletic Conference Empire division track and field championships at Central Square.
East Syracuse Minoa ran away with the girls title, picking up 177 points. Jamesville-DeWitt was second in the girls meet but prevailed in the boys event by earning 176 points to fend off the second-place Spartans’ total of 159.33 points.
The close boys meet still featured star turns from ESM’s Michael Parks, tops in the state in the 110 high hurdles, who went 14.57 seconds to beat Rocky El’s 14.84 in that event as J-D’s Nick Dekaney was third in 14.92.
Winning twice on his own, El, in 11.38 seconds, held off Dekaney (11.55) and J-D’s Max McCaull (11.65) to win the 100-meter dash and, in the triple jump, unleashed a top attempt of 43 feet 7 3/4 inches, with teammate Amare Withers second at 42’2 1/4″.
Not only that, but El and Parks, paired with Aidan Hirt and Dan Tovar, took the 4×100 relay in 43.54 seconds, nearly two seconds of the field, with J-D settling for fifth place. Parks cleared 5’10” for third place in the high jump.
Hirt took second in the 400-meter dash in 51.39 seconds, with teammate LeShaun Benjamin (53.39) third, with the Spartans seeing Hirt, Benjamin, Tovar and Caleb Byrd go 3:33.18 to win the 4×400 relay, with J-D third.
Luke Mancini topped 10’6″ for second place in the pole vault, with Kevin Hasty second in the shot put with a throw of 41’1″ as Andrew LeMarche finished fourth, Hasty adding a third-place discus throw of 112’9″.
But the Red Rams countered with a balanced lineup led by Caleb Smith, who in the 200-meter dash went 23.10 seconds to beat Dekaney’s second-place 23.36 as Hirt was third in 23.50 and Tovar fifth.
Then, in the long jump, Smith, with a leap of 20’10 1/4″, edged Parks (20’9 1/4″) by one inch as Adam Rigdon was fourth for the Rams. In the triple jump, Smith finished fourth with a 41-foot attempt.
In the 800-meter run, J-D went 1-2, Sam Smith winning in 2:01.44 and James Hillers, in 2:05.87, edging ESM’s Caleb Byrd (2:06.16) for second place. And in the 3,000-meter steeplechase, Connor Clarkson went 10:59.37 to beat Ashton Corona’s second-place 11:04.12. ESM’s Brandon Cerlanek was fourth.
Smith, Alex Martinez, James Hillers and Hudson Groat went 8:43.16 in the 4×800 relay, beating out ESM’s second-place 8:52.97. Martinez took third in the 1,600-meter run in 4:40.47 as Groat (4:47.68) was fourth as Clarkson was second in the 3,200-meter run in 10:19.25 and Corona was third.
Isaac Bennett got second in the pentathlon with 1,707 points as ESM’s Avery McMullen (1,489) was third. Shane Garguilo was second in the 400 hurdles in 1:02.72, with the Spartans’ Joe Pedrosa-Garcia fifth.
George Grigorian had a third-place shot put throw of 40’6 1/2″. Andres Vallerdes finished fourth in the high jump, while Brayden Rivera got fourth place in the 400-meter dash.
Many different athletes helped the ESM girls roll to first, including Akuot Kuany, the school-record holder in the 100 hurdles, who won that event in 16.13 seconds as teammate Kaleigh Maloof (18.58) was third, Kuany adding a second-place long jump of 16’6 1/2″.
In the high jump, Rhiannon Butchko, clearing 5 feet, won and Kuany was second with 4’10” as Aryanna Finkelstein won the shot put with a toss of 31 feet and Margaret Mading had a second-place triple jump of 33′ 3/4″.
Maloof, Sophia Jackson, Evanni McDuffie and Rylie King paired up to win a tight 4×100, edging Central Square, 51.323 seconds to the Redhawks’ 51.325, a margin of two-thousandths of a second.
Later, in the 4×400, Amber Hayes, Elena Vespi, Lilia Pena and Gianna DiPietro went 4:24.72 to edge J-D’s quartet of Madeline Carter, Victoria Payne, Emma Deehan and Norah Kirch who were close behind in 4:24.90.
Hayes went 1:10.60 to prevail in the 400 hurdles, while Laura Sitnik was third in 1:16.60 as Vespi was victorious in the 800 in 2:36 flat, with Pena fifth. King finished third in the 200 in 27.78, with McDuffie fourth in 28.01.
Arianna Brennen was victorious in the five-event pentathlon, earning 2,156 points to beat Auburn’s Reese DeRosa by more than 600 points.
McDuffie took second in the 100 sprint in 13.39 seconds, edging teammate Rylie King, who was third in 13.45. J-D’s Madeline Carter was fourth in 13.92 and Jaden Clemons-Butenko sixth.
Rachael Ladd won the 2,000 steeplechase, posting 8:05.68, and was third in the 1,500-meter run in 5:20.09, with Taylor Hoffman sixth. ESM was third in the 4×800 in 10:48.87 as Akasha Nunnally was fourth in the pole vault and Jackson fourth in the discus with 91’5″.
For J-D, Victoria Payne rose to second in the 400 sprint in 1:01.09, with ESM’s Lilia Pena fifth, Payne also taking second in the 200 in 27.78 to edge King.
Brooke Hulbert got second place in the 400 hurdles in 1:15.48, with Kirch third in the 800 in 2:43.61 as Hulbert topped 4’8″ for third place in the high jump and was fifth in the triple jump.
J-D was third in the 4×100 in 53.52 seconds and fifth in the 4×800. Megan O’Malley was third in the steeplechase and Hailey Webber had a third-place shot put toss of 30’7″ and Maeve Murphy was fourth in the long jump.
