SYRACUSE – The area’s top high school indoor track and field athletes got to all face each other Wednesday night during the Section III state qualifying meet at SRC Arena, and West Genesee emerged victorious in three events.
This included the boys 4×200 relay, where the Wildcats’ quartet of Dylan Frost, Will Fettig, Anthony Edgar and Rhison Williams, in one minute, 32.29 seconds, beat out the 1:34.72 from Oriskany and secured a spot in March’s state championship meet on Staten Island.
Not long after this, Michael Gomes emerged victorious in the 1,000-meter run. Seventh through 400 meters, Gomes went to the front in the middle of the race and stayed there, his 2:36.31 beating out the 2:37.73 from Baldwnsville’s Noah Covert.
To close out the meet, WG’s girls joined in the fun by winning the 4×400. Andrea Conklin, Peyton Long, Chloe Feitze and Claire Griffin went 9:37.51 to pull away from runner-up Liverpool’s 9:52.47.
Frost got ninth place in the 55-meter dash in 6.71 that beat the state qualifying standard of 6.74, even though he didn’t reach the finals due to the depth of the field.
Hayden Rothenberg contended for WG in the triple jump, his season-best 41 feet good for eighth place, while he also was 11th in the long jump, going 19’11”.
In the 4×200 relay, WG had Jessica Marshfield, Sofia Barba, Chelsea Donaldson and Molly Doran get fifth place in 1:51.30, with Solvay earning eighth place in 1:53.17. Doran finished fifth in the girls 300-meter dash in 43.38 seconds, while Williams was ninth in the boys 300 in 37.41 ahead of Gomes’ 37.72 and Fettig’s 37.82.
Skaneateles had already seen its pair of school record-setting throwers, Will Feeney and Mara Stanton, earn distances in the weight throw that secured spots for the state meet, taking off all the pressure at the state qualifier.
Stanton still finished second here, her 42’7” only trailing the 43’1 3/4” from Jamesville-DeWitt’s Kenna Ridzi as WG’s Annissa Lee broke a school record in the girls weight throw, heaving it 35’4 1/4”.
In the boys weight throw, Feeney, whose top throw this winter was 58’9”, had 56’9 1/2” here, one of four state qualifiers with Cortland’s duo of Michael Dearie (62’4 3/4”) and Bryan Honan (61’5 1/4”) and West Canada Valley’s Iain Farber (58’10 1/4”). Feeney also had a sixth-place shot put of 49’7 1/2”.
The Lakers’ Lucy Fleckenstein ran to sixth at 1,500 meters in 4:58.44. Tritan Boucher finished seventh in the boys 1,000 in 2:42.87 behind Gomes, with Cody Crane 12th in the 600 in 1:30.60.
Westhill, the sectional boys and girls Class B-1 champions, was led by distance runners like Owen Mulholland, who finished second in the 600-meter run in 1:25.89, just ahead of Solvay’s Ole Matyiuk, who rose to third place in 1:25.92. ‘
Drew O’Reilly, who was fifth in the 3,200-meter run in 9:42.97, though he had run 9:37.55 earlier this season to beat the state qualifying standard. O’Reilly, Alex Dacko, Bryce Burdick and Edward Popp were fifth in the 4×800 in 8:42.32.
To lead the Westhill girls, Isabel Leonardo was fourth in the triple jump, going 37’3” as Ava Baty went 34’5”. Jael Hill threw the shot put 32’ 1/4” to finish sixth. Mary Kate Rewakowski and Mallie Alt both topped 8’6” in the pole vault.
Marcellus had Owen Alexander just miss the finals in the boys 55-meter hurdles in 8.32 seconds as Andrew McCaffrey, Joe Striffler, Xander Szalach and Aaron Weber were fourth in the 4×400 in 3:37.49.
Szalach was fifth in the high jump, setting a new career mark by clearing 6 feet as Westhill’s LaDaryle Watkins (5’8”) was 10th. Cameron Sadler’s weight throw of 48 feet was ahead of the 47’ 1/4” from Solvay’s Dylan Mumford.
For the girls Mustangs, Madison Foy was ninth in the girls 55 hurdles in 8.88. The girls Mustangs were sixth in the 4×400 relay in 4:22.63 to beat WG’s seventh-place 4:24.95.
Solvay’s Rachel Willsey led the local contingent in the long jump, her 15’11” just ahead of the 15’ 3/4” from Westhill’s Emma Murphy and 15’8 1/4” from Bearcats teammate Serenity Williams.
