VERONA – With a series of victories and high finishes from its top runners, the Christian Brothers Academy boys track and field team put up a strong second-place finish in Thursday’s Section III Class B-1 championships at Vernon-Verona-Sherrill High School.
All told, the Brothers picked up 89 points, beating everyone in the 12-team field except Westhill, who won with 104 points to go with its lopsided victory in the girls B-1 meet.
Freshman Darien Williams sped to victory in the 100-meter dash in 11.29 seconds, edging Syracuse ITC’s Trejuer Sledge (11.30) by one-hundredth of a second as Syair Torrence was third in 11.33.
Williams wasn’t done, either, going to the 200-meter dash and, in 23.10 seconds, holding off Westhill’s Evan Frost (23.17) while Cameron Smith made it to third place in 23.58 and Torrence (23.93) was sixth.
Chris Zajdel added a victory in the 400-meter dash in 51.41 seconds, with Bruce Broadwell (55.11) holding off Aiden Duggan (55.23) for fourth place. Cooper Groat went to the top in the 800-meter run in a quick 1:58.18, with Kyle Gaffney (2:06.56) in fifth place.
To cap off this track effort, Groat, Zajdel, Duggan and Broadwell emerged victorious in the 4×400 relay, going 3:34.17 to beat runner-up Chittenango (3:19.06) by nearly five seconds.
Torrence, Williams, Chris Zajdel and Remir Ratchford nearly won the 4×100, that race also decided by one-hundredth of a second as the Brothers got 44.55 and ITC prevailed with 45.44.
Michael McMahon went 10:18.79 to earn second place in the 3,200-meter run. Tyler Broschart cleared 5 feet 6 inches to take fifth place in the high jump.
CBA’s girls finished fifth with 51 points, winning the first race on the card when Bella Cannizzo, Grace Fletcher, Mia Ludington and Claire Krueger went 9:59.32 in the 4×800 relay, more than 23 seconds ahead of the field.
Fletcher got a win of her own in the 800, going 2:26.64 as Krueger finished third in 2:35.63. Cannizzo took third (11:39.75) and Mary Sullivan fourth (12:03.11) in the 3,000-meter run.
Amazin Spencer got third place in the 100 sprint in 13.23 seconds and third in the 200 in 27.75 as Ludington (28.17) was sixth, while Ella Zaryski was fifth in the 1,500-meter run in 5:43.04. Cannizzo was fifth in the 2,000 steeplechase.
