SYRACUSE – Grouped together once more, indoor track and field teams from East Syracuse Minoa, Jamesville-DeWitt and Fayetteville-Manlius would battle for top honors throughout Saturday’s morning session of the Fred Kirschenheiter Memorial at SRC Arena.
And as it turned out, the boys Spartans and girls Red Rams both would gain first place, and in each case the Hornets were second.
ESM’s boys had 87 points to F-M’s 83, with J-D third by earning 74 points. Twice in track events, the Spartans went 1-2, including the 55-meter hurdles, where Jay-Neil McDuffie, in 8.03 seconds, won and Phil Moore was second in 8.45.
Earlier, in the 1,000-meter run, the Spartans’ Joe Pedrosa-Garcia, in 2:50.04, edged teammate Brandon Cerlanck (2:50.60) for the top spot as they beat J-D’s Noah Rafkis (2:53.44) in third place.
McDuffie had a second-place triple jump of 40 feet 3 ¼ inches as Moore (40’1 ¼”) was fourth. Caleb Byrd rose to second place in the high jump, topping 5’6” as Henninger’s Yor Yal went 6’5” to win it. Aaron Ali was fourth and Victor Rodriguez in the weight throw, Ali heaving it 46’8 ¾”.
To lead F-M, Will Ditre won at 1,600 meters in 4:32.08, with Will Beecher third in 4:47.68, while in the 55-meter dash the Hornets were 1-2, Nick Domashenko winning in 6.65 seconds and Jackson Burton second in 6.82. McDuffie was fourth.
Jackson Brown, clearing 9 feet, tied for second in the pole vault, while Kyler Patrick earned fourth place in the 3,200-meter run and Burton was fourth in the long jump.
J-D had Adam Rigdon, Amar Lopez, Jaden Addai and Nate Cottet go 1:38.80 to win the 4×200 relay, with ESM fourth in 1:42.19. And in the 4×400, Brayden Rivera, Will Westpfal, Shane Gargiulo and Ryan Carter, in 3:35.15, beat out F-M’s second-place 3:39.84.
Right after, Ben Kenna was victorious in the 600-meter run in 1:29.17, the Spartans getting Seamus DeSandre (1:33.95) into third place and Carter Jacobs into fifth place. Daksh Maini was fourth in the 300, with the Hornets’ Alex Shim fifth as Jaden Addai was fifth in the triple jump. Mustafa Abdel-Aziz was fourth and Keegan Muller fifth in the pole vault.
Christian Brothers Academy saw Xavier Caesar finish third in the 300-meter dash in 38.26 seconds ahead of F-M’s Vincent Hunt (38.85) and J-D’s Hudson Groat (39.07). Marquan Saddler got a third-place shot put toss of 41’8 ½”.
A more decisive victory was earned by J-D’s girls, who had 102 points to beat F-M’s second-place 85, while ESM, with 61 points, slid into fourth place.
The Red Rams swept the top three in the shot put, Skylar Vaught’s 34’8 ¼”beating Kenna Ridzi (33 feet) and Jillian Webber (30’4 ¼”) third. The same thing happened in the weight throw, only with Ridzi on top with 39’2 ½” ahead of Vaught’s 37’6 ½” and Webber’s 35’ ½”.
Nikki Militi was victorious in the 300 sprint in 43.29 seconds, with Victoria Payne fourth in 44.04, just behind the third-place 44.03 from ESM’s Amber Hayes.
Not only that, but Militi and Payne, paired with Amariyah McClinton and Carolina Cuello, breezed to first in 4:22.38, well clear of F-M (4:32.15), who settled for third place. Brielle Rivera had a third-place pole vault of 7’6”.
F-M saw Izzie Sullivan, Camille Ryan, Maria Khalifeh and Jordan Giannetti go 9:51.26 in the 4×800 relay, with no one else breaking the 11-minute mark.
Khalifeh went from there to win the 600 in 1:44.62, chased by J-D’s Norah Kirch (1:50.64) in third place as Giannetti was fifth. Ryan beat the field in the 1,000 in 3:08.45, with Claire McDonald fourth and J-D’s Meghana Reddy fifth.
Sullivan went 3,000 meters in 10:05.08, routing a field where Sarah George (12:02.35) was third. Olive Hooper was thir in the triple jump with 14’9” as Allison Pynn cleared 4’6” for fifth place in the high jump.
ESM’s Rachael Burt beat F-M’s Dahlia Saada, 5:19.02 to 5:24.09, in the 1,500-meter run as CBA had Ava LaValle in fourth place in 5:37.67.
Hayes would gain victory in the 55 hurdles in 8.87 seconds, nearly a full second ahead of the field, with Evanni McDuffie winning the 55 sprint in 7.42 to Hayes’ third-place 7.70 and Payne’s fourth-place 7.81. Madelyn Copp got third in the triple jump with 30’5”, while Laura Olmstead was fourth in the shot put.
