SYRACUSE – No one would get close to either of the Westhill track and field teams during Wednesday night’s Section III Class B-1 championship meet at SRC Arena.
When all was settled, the Warriors had 137 points on the girls side to beat South Jefferson’s 97 and 96 points on the boys side to fend off a strong challenge from Marcellus, who was second with 83 points.
That boys meet included several fine performances by both Westhill and Marcellus, with the Warriors cleaning up in distance events such as the 3,200-meter run, which Drew O’Reilly won in nine minutes, 49.94 seconds as Alex Dacko (10:27.01) was third.
Owen Mulholland, in 1:27.67, gained victory in the 600-meter run, with Dacko third in 1:32.08. O’Reilly was second (4:46.38) and Edward Popp third (4:47.04) running together at 1,600 meters, while in the 1,000-meter run Popp got third place in 2:46.49, with Mulholland fourth in 2:51.17 to go with a third in the 300-meter dash in 37.93 seconds.
They were all together again in the 4×800 as O’Reilly, Popp, Dacko and Bryce Burdick won it in 8:51.48, beating the 8:57.48 from the Marcellus quartet of Aaron Weber, Jamison Palen, Alex LoStracco and Liam Eldridge. The Warriors later finished second in the 4×200 in 1:38.26, just behind Syracuse ITC’s 1:37.32.
For its part, Marcellus would have Joe Striffler, Andrew McCaffrey, Xander Szalach and Paul Swenson go 3:36.38 to dominate the 4×400 relay ahead of Westhill’s second-place 3:50.45.
Owen Alexander won, too, going 8.22 seconds to take the 55 hurdles as teammate Colden Kwasnowski was fifth (9.38) and Westhill’s Josh Dabbiero (9.06) was fourth, with Cameron Sadler unleashing a top weight throw of 51’ 1/2” as teammate Ethan Dilmore (48’6 3/4”) was close behind in fifth place.
Striffler almost won the triple jump, too, his 41’10” just a quarter-inch behind the 41’10 1/4” from Syracuse ITC’s Trystan Bey. In the long jump, Striffler was fourth with 19’7 3/4”, again not far from the winning effort of 20’1 1/2” from Central Valley Academy’s Landon LaFountain.
McCaffrey was third in the pole vault, clearing 11 feet, while Szalach added a fourth in the 300 in 38.08 secondEldridge, in 2:41.98, grabbed second in the 1,000-meter run as Palen was fifth and Ethan Checksfield seventh. Weber took fourth (1:32.39) and Ryan Stephens fifth (1:33.41) in the 600, with Robbie Hakes fifth in the high jump clearing 5’6”.
Meanwhile, in the B-1 girls meet, Westhill piled up points in field events like the pole vault, where it had five of the top six finishers amounting to 27 points as Mary Kate Rewakowski won, clearing 9 feet, with Mallie Alt second and Emma Murphy third, both topping 8 feet.
Yet it was Isabel Leonardo winning three times for the Warriors. She went 1:47.62 to edge Phoenix’s Samantha Hopps (1:48.15) and prevail in the 600, added a second title in the high jump by clearing 5 feet to edge out the 4’10” from Marcellus challenger Lorelei Reffler, and capped her day with a winning triple jump of 35’6 3/4” as Ava Baty was third with 33’6 3/4”.
Murphy won a tense 55 hurdles, her 9.15 seconds edging Marcellus’ Maddie Foy (9:17) by two-hundredths of a second as Baty was fourth in 9.25 and Alt sixth in 9.79. In the long jump, Murphy got second place with 16’5”. Jael Hill was victorious in the shot put with a heave of 32’6”, Emma Marshall getting fifth place with 28’4”.
Eileen Mullen was second (11:30.22) and Avery Starowicz third (11:33.88) in the 3,000-meter run, Mullen adding a fourth in the 1,500 in 5:29.07. Stella Napolitano took fourth in the 1,000-meter run in 3:24.64 and helped Napolitano, Molly Thompson and Grace Bergett take second in the 4×800 in 11:00.11.
Marcellus, meanwhile, got 52 points for fourth place, which included a victory in the weight throw by Tessy Huntley, whose top toss of 38’ 1 3/4” set a personal mark and topped the 37’2 3/4” from Homer’s Molly McMasters.
The Mustangs were also second in the 4×400 in 4:15.57, beating Westhill’s third-place 4:35.58 and just behind the 4:13.20 from Vernon-Verona-Sherrill, adding a third in the 4×200 in 1:54.44.
Individuallly, Corinne Aldrich was third in the 600 in 1:49.97. Dorothy McMahon’s 46.25 seconds gave her fourth place in the 300, and she also was fifth in the long jump with 15’3 3/4”.
