CICERO – When top track and field athletes gather next weekend at Middletown High School for the New York State Public High School Athletic Association championships, Baldwinsville will have plenty of representation.
A superb season for the boys Bees would include a handful of victories in Thursday’s sun-soaked Section III state qualifying meet at Cicero-North Syracuse’s Bragman Stadium, with Sydney McKenney also prevailing in the girls pole vault.
Putting on quite a show in the boys 4×800 relay, B’ville’s quartet of Solomon Holden-Betts, Jack McAllister, Logan Hayes and Jeff Ragonese went a swift seven minutes, 55.51 seconds, more than 25 seconds ahead of runner-up Liverpool’s 8:20.71.
B’ville also won the 4×400 as Kaleb Paul, Evan Smith and Zach Arria joined Hayes to go 3:27.13 to J-D’s 3:28,74, while in the 4×100 Anthony Noda, Dom Lucio, Brandon Levin and Mason Cavallaro were fourth in 44.22 seconds.
Holden-Betts would also win at 3,200 meters in 9:27.58, more than six seconds ahead of the field, with Ryan Wilson fourth in 9:41.82. In the 3,000-meter steeplechase Noah Covert beat the field in 10:05.65, more than four seconds ahead of Jamesville-DeWitt’s Connor Clarkson (10:09.91), with Keagan Hayes fifth in Divison I in 10:51.13.
Hayes went under 50 seconds in the 400-meter dash, his 49.84 second to Whitesboro’s Jack Towns (49.79) as McAllister was fifth in 50.67 and Evan Smith eighth in 52.31. Ragonese got second in the 800-meter run in 1:59.42, breaking the two-minute mark.
Kyle Sheckler cleared 12 feet 6 inches for third place in the pole vault. David Dobrowolski, with a shot put toss of 43’1”, beat out Daimel Fowler (42’2 1/4”) for fourth place while, in the discus Dobrowolski was again fourth with 130’3”.
Logan Zapf, in 15.76 seconds, edged Jackson Creelman (15.80) for third place in the 110 hurdles. Nate Glidden finished with 2,147 points in the pentathlon, fifth in Division I as Zapf took sixth in the triple jump, going 40’5 1/2”.
McKenney led the B’ville girls, going to the pole vault and, by clearing 10 feet, outlasting a field where Liverpool’s Layla Pearl Collins was second (9 feet) and Kate DeFio tied for sixth with 7’6”. McKenney also went 16.60 in the 100 hurdles, unable to advance to the finals.
In the 4×400, Madison Kennedy, Rachel Becker, Brianna Grosso and Kamryn Barton finished second in 4:07.66 to J-D (4:06.36) as Kennedy got second in the 400 sprint, her 59.49 seconds inches behind the 59.46 from Jamesville-DeWitt’s Nikki Militi. Becker took eighth in the 400 hurdles.
Aaniya Johnson, in 12.80 seconds, took fifth in the 100-meter dash. Yolanda Wei earned fifth in the Division I 2,000 steeplechase in 8:11.75.
Johnson, Natalie Bartkowiak, Emerson Clavijo and Avamarie Davis were sixth in the 4×100 in 51.33 seconds as Wei, Clare Horan, Ella Valentine and Adrianna Orlando were eighth in the 4×800 in 11:15.57. Nela Loftin finished sixth in the triple jump with a top leap of 33 feet.
