STATEN ISLAND – A dominant season for the Baldwinsville boys indoor track and field team would culminate with several Bees going to Staten Island’s Ocean Breeze complex for Saturday’s New York State Public High School Athletic Association championships.
Leading the charge was Bees distance runners Solomon Holden-Betts, who looked to add indoor medals to the individual NYSPHSAA Class A cross country championship he earned last November.
And that’s what Holden-Betts did in the 1,600-meter run. In four minutes, 15.14 seconds, Holden-Betts improved on his previous effort by more than six seconds and was runner-up in the state, topped only by the 4:13.51 from Sanford H. Calhoun’s Logan Schaeffler.
Also medaling was the Bees’ 4×400 relay team of Logan Hayes, Jack McAllister, Brandon Levin and Kaleb Paul, who tore to a time of 3:25.25 in the qualifying round.
Then the Bees ran the final in 3:26.02 for fifth place overall and fourth among NYSPHSAA sides as Bishop Loughlin won the Federation race in 3:18.54 and Huntington (3:24.68) took public-school honors.
Holden-Betts and McAllister joined Ryan Wilson and Jeff Ragonese in the 4×800 relay, where B’ville had gone 8:19.83 this winter and did 8:09.81 here, finishing 10th overall and seventh in the NYSPHSAA standings.
Kyle Sheckler had cleared 12 feet 6 inches in the pole vault, and would top 11’6” here for 21st place as Taconic Hill’s Neil Howard won with 15’9”.
McAllister ran at 600 meters, looking to improve on 1:25.40, and did 1:24.24 to finish 15th overall, while Logan Hayes was in the 300-meter dash and was 20th in 36.04 seconds.
B’ville’s lone girls entry at the state meet was Sydney McKenney, aiming for a top-10 finish in the pole vault and looking to improve upon her school-record clearance of 11 feet.
Here, McKenney would reach 10’6”, but it tied her for 11th place as Pine Bush’s Ella Galloway prevailed with 12’6”.
