SYRACUSE – Though there wasn’t a long transition from cross country to indoor track and field, area teams sure seemed to make it work.
During Wednesday’s first session of the Jack Morse Kickoff Meet at SRC Arena, the Jamesville-DeWitt girls won its portion with 110.75 points and East Syracuse Minoa won the boys division with 105 points to J-D’s second-place 82.
Ellyana Deng won two events for the J-D girls, unleashing a top triple jump of 33 feet 4 ¾ inches to beat South Jefferson’s Chloe Abbott 33’4 1/4” by half an inch.
Deng also won the high jump, clearing 5 feet as no one else could top 4’10”, while Brielle Rivera was third in the pole vault, topping 8 feet for the first time.
Nikki Militi won for the Red Rams in the girls 600-meter run, going 1:45.64 to beat the field as Norah Kirch finished seventh. Later, in the 4×200 relay, J-D’s quartet of Emma Rukavena, Amariyah McClinton, Ellyana Deng and Claire Trevisani won in 1:58.07, the only time under two minutes. The Rams were third in the 4×400 relay in 4:42.48, with ESM sixth.
In a 1-2-3 sweep in the shot put, Skylar Vaught won with a toss of 34 feet 6 ¼ inches, beating the 33’7” from Kenna Ridzi and 33’6 1/2” from Jillian Webber, who would win the weight throw with 41’8” to Vaught’s second-place 38’8 1/2”.
ESM’s Amber Hayes was second in the 55-meter hurdles in 9.26 seconds and got third in the 55-meter dash in 7.83, with Victoria Payne sixth to go with a fifth in the long jump as Rachael Burt was third at 1,500 meters in a personal-best 5:14.33.
Fayetteville-Manlius was here, too, sweeping the top three in the girls 1,000 as Izzie Sullivan won in 3:03.26, pulling away from Camille Ryan (3:09.71) and Maria Khalifeh (3:10.58) as ESM’s Jaelyn Jordan finished fifth.
Sullivan, Khalifeh, Ryan and Claire McDonald won the 4×800 in 9:52.54, the only time under 10 minutes. McDonald took fourth and Jordan Giannetti fifth in the 1,000.Ava Beecher was fourth in the 1,500 and Charlotte Knutsen fifth in the 3,000-meter run.
ESM’s boys victory was keyed by a 1-2-3 sweep in the 55 hurdles, Jay-Neil McDuffie winning in 8.08 seconds ahead of Phil Moore’s 8.37 and Ryan Sullivan’s 8.51. Sullivan went on to win the high jump, clearing 6 feet with fewer misses than PSLA-Fowler’s Damereon Gary.
The Spartans’ Hashim Abdi went 6.86 seconds to finish second in the 55-meter dash as J-D’s Daksh Maini (6.97) was fourth and Adam Rigdon seventh. Maini also took fourth in the 55 hurdles.
McDuffie, Hashim Abdi, Husseni Abdi and Phil Moore would win the 4×200 in 1:38.65, edging PSLA-Fowler’s 1:38.84 as J-D finished a close third in 1:38.91, and McDuffie would go on to win the long jump, going 21’2 1/4”, one inch ahead of the 21/1 1/4” from Central Square’s Austin Melvin.
Michael Ojeda cleared 9’6” for second place in the pole vault, while Victor Rodriguez had a third-place shot put toss of 39’9 1/4” and Phil Moore fourth (40’3 1/4”) in the triple jump.
On the boys side for J-D, Ryan Carter was victorious in the 1,000 in 2:53.43, edging the 2:53.57 from ESM’s Joe Pedrosa-Garcia as F-M had Will Beecher third in 2:53.98 and the Spartans had Brandon Cerlanek fifth.
Hudson Groat got third place in the 600 in 1:29.41, with Ben Kenna fourth in the 300-meter dash in 39.23 seconds. Carter, Groat, Noah Rafkis and Diego Pizzul went 9:32.20 in the 4×800 to beat ESM’s second-place 9:38.23. Sam Macie earned third place in the pole vault, topping 9 feet.
F-M’s boys did get a win from Will Ditre in the 1,600, where he went 4:53.49, the only time under five minutes as Kyler Patrick finished third in 5:10.33.
Christian Brothers Academy was part of the second part of the Morse meet a day later, seeing Joe McMahon win the boys 3,200 in 9:52.75, edging the 9:53.99 from Liverpool’s Brady Ruediger. The Brothers were fifth in the 4×400 in 3:58.92.
