SYRACUSE – Not in 30 years had the East Syracuse Minoa boys indoor track and field team experienced something similar to what it did Thursday night at SRC Arena.
When the Spartans claimed the Salt City Athletic Conference Empire division meet, it won its first league championship since 1994, and did outlasting its neighbors from Jamesville-DeWitt, 135 points to the Red Rams’ 118.
J-D made up for it, to a degree, by winning the girls SCAC Empire meet with 147 points, comfortably ahead of Central Square’s runner-up 93.5 as ESM, with 78 points, gained third place.
Excelling in sprints, the ESM boys saw Jay-Neil McDuffie win the 55-meter dash in 6.76 seconds and Hashim Abdi finish third in 6.87, but that was just a prelude.
Going 1-2-3 in the 55 hurdles, the Spartans had McDuffie win in 7.88 seconds, Phil Moore get second in 8.23 and Ryan Sullivan third in 8:38. Then, in the 4×800 relay, Joe Pedrosa-Garcia, Brandon Cerlanck, Seamus DeSandre and Carter Jacobs, in 8:49.11, pulled away from J-D’s second-place 9:15.41.
McDuffie’s third title came in the long jump, where he went 20 feet 11 ¼ inches and just beat out Moore’s second-place 20’ 1/4”, with J-D’s Adam Rigdon (19’11”) in third place.
Pedrosa-Garcia finished second (2:46.38) and Cerlanck fifth (2:49.04) in the 1,000-meter run, with DeSandre sixth and Jacobs seventh in the 600. Michael Ojeda topped 9’6” for second place in the pole vault to the 13’6” from Central Square star Austin Melvin.
Victor Rodriguez threw the shot put 38’8” for third place, while Kamari Jones (37’5”) was fourth, but improved to third in the weight throw with 39’10” just ahead of Aaron Ali’s fourth-place 39’8 3/4”.
Gaining its own victory in the 4×400 relay, J-D had Brayden Rivera, Shane Gargiulo, Ben Kenna and Will Westpfal finish in 3:33.36, with ESM back in fourth place. Later, Rivera, Westpfal, Rigdon and Daksh Maini won the 4×200 in 1:37.18 to beat the Spartans’ second-place 1:39.21.
In the 600, Hudson Groat won in 1:28.70, with Kenna third (1:29.64) and Gargiulo fourth (1:33.14). Westpfal got his turn at the top in the 300-meter dash in 37.31 seconds, Rivera (38.63) getting third place and Javere Lopez seventh place.
Matt Campbell was victorious in the triple jump, going 41’1 1/4” as Sullivan, third in 40’1”, edged Jaden Addai (40 feet) for that spot and Moore was fifth with 39’5 1/2”. Addai had his turn in the high jump, winning with a top leap of 6 feet as Caleb Byrd (5’8”) was fourth to go with a fifth in the 300.
Keegan Muller finished third in the pole vault, while Peter Drew was fourth and Zach Lapidus sixth in the 3,200-meter run, with Maini fourth and Rigdon sixth in the 55 sprint as Maini was fifth and Gargiulo seventh in the 55 hurdles.
On the oval for J-D’s girls, Nicki Militi won three times, going 43.27 seconds in a 1-2 finish with Victoria Payne (43.82) in the 300 after she won the 600 in 1:40.42, more than eight seconds ahead of the field, Abdi Adams taking seventh place. Finally, in the 4×200, Militi, Payne, Autry and Amariyah McClinton got first place in 1:50 flat, with ESM third in 1:53.83.
Skylar Vaught had a winning shot put toss of 35’3 1/2”, her best of the season, and was second in the weight throw (37’4”) behind Kenna Ridzi’s winning 42’5”, a new personal mark. Nina Autry added a triple jump victory by going 33’6 1/4”, with Ellyana Deng (32’1 1/2”) third and ESM’s Madelyn Copp fourth with 30’7”.
Meghana Reddy took the 1,000 in 3:18.72 as Anna Smith finished fourth. Payne went 8.61 seconds for second place in the 55 hurdles, while J-D also took second in the 4×800 in 11:15.35 and third in the 4×400 in 4:30.71.
Brielle Rivera, clearing 8 feet, was second in the pole vault as Kaitlyn Cohen (7 feet) was third. Deng cleared 4’10” in the high jump for third place and went 15’ 3/4” in the long jump for fourth place.
ESM’s girls were led by Rachael Burt, who got a win in the 3,000-meter run in 11:15.55, with J-D’s Rebecca Mendez Squier fourth, while in the 1,500-meter run Burt prevailed in 5:25.84, this time having Mendez Squier finish sixth.
Evanni McDuffie won the 55 sprint in 7.32 seconds, just ahead of Amber Hayes (7.74) in third place as Hayes also was third (9.05) in the 55 hurdles and third in the 300 in 44.71 ahead of teammate Giana DiPetro in fifth place. Gianna Brilbeck was fourth in the shot put, with Madeline Carr fifth and Laura Olmstead sixth to go with a fifth in the weight throw.
