ONONDAGA COUNTY – Given their schedules, area high school track and field teams would prove quite busy during what is usually a break for other students in the area.
It all began Tuesday with Jamesville-DeWitt making big noise in the Westhill Spring Break Invitational and East Syracuse Minoa making noise against four different large schools at Cicero-North Syracuse’s Bragman Stadium.
Striking in the girls sprints at Westhill, J-D’s Victoria Payne won the 100-meter dash in 12.87 seconds, the only time under 13, and then, in the 200-meter dash, went 26.86 to edge teammate Nicki Militi’s second-place 26.95.
Kenna Ridzi went to the top in the shot put with a toss of 35 feet as Skylar Vaught was fourth with 30’10 3/4”, but moved to the top in the discus with a heave of 103’6” as Udo Okereke was fourth with 85’1”.
Meghana Reddy got second place in the 800-meter run in 2:27.59, inches behind Homer’s Ingrid Aagaard (2:27.56) as NorahKirch was fifth. Rivera was third (8 feet) and Kaitlyn Cohen fifth in the pole vault, Ellyana Deng clearing 4’10” for third in the high jump.
For the J-D boys, Will Westpfal and Brayden Rivera matched what Payne and Militi did, sweeping the top spots in the 200 as Westpfal won in 23.02 seconds and Rivera got second n 23.41, with Adam Rigdon fifth to go with a third-place long jump of 20’6”.
Westpfal also got second place in the 100 in 11.53 seconds before Hudson Groat took second in the 800 in 2:02.38. Dairien Hunter was second in the rarely-contested 200 hurdles in 27.88, with Shane Gargiulo third in 28.11 and Avery Kielbasinski fourth in 28.28.
Kevin Vigneault, throwing the shot put 45’4 1/2”, made his way to second place, with Emeka Okereke fifth at 38’3” as Vigneault added a third in the discus with 131’1”. Amar Lopez got third in the triple jump, going 41’9”, while Deacon Enright tied for fourth in the pole vault, topping 9 feet.
While all this was going on, ESM put itself up against host C-NS along with Baldwinsville, Liverpool, West Genesee and Living Word Academy.
The girls Spartans went 4-1, beating the Bees (83-67), Warriors (77-72) and Wildcats (82-66), only falling 89.5-60.5 to a far deeper Northstars roster as the ESM boys went 2-3, edging a strong WG side 74-73.
Akuot Kuany won twice for the girls Spartans, her high jump of 5’4” half a foot ahead of anyone else and her long jump of 16’7 3/4” the only attempt by any competitor that went beyond 16 feet. Kuany also got second in the 100 hurdles in 16.28 seconds, with Amber Hayes fourth in 16.97, and added a fourth in the triple jump with 34’1 1/4”.
Evanni McDuffie beat the field in the girls 100 sprint, her 12.88 seconds one-hundredth of a second ahead of the 12.89 from C-NS’s Jaydin Mackey.
Ayak Kuany topped 4’8” in the high jump for fourth place, but did better in the shot put, going 29’7 3/4” for third place as Laura Olmsted (28’10”) was fourth, Kuany adding a third (77’4”) and Gianna Brilbeck fourth (75’7”) in the discus.
The Spartans were also second in the 4×800 relay in 8:50.87 led by Rachael Burt, who added a second-place time of 11:28.40 I n the 3,000-meter run. Hayes took third (1:13.91) and Issa Ellerton fourth (1:14.58) in the 400 hurdles.
Elise Mancini elevated to third place in the pole vault, clearing 8 feet. Sophia Brooks got fifth in the 200 in 28.99 seconds and Ellerton fifth in the 2,000 steeplechase.
Individually, ESM’s boys featured three wins from Jay-Neil McDuffie, and nearly a fourth. In the 110 hurdles, his 15.60 seconds zoomed ahead of a field where no one else broke the 17-second mark.
Then, int he 100-meter dash McDuffie’s 11.36 won it over the 11.66 from Mikah Combs in second place, and that pair, joined by Anthony Bryant and Hashim Abdi, went 45.12 in the 4×100, two-hundredths of a second ahead of B’ville’s 45.14. McDuffie got second place in the long jump with a leap of 21’1 1/2” as Abdi was fifth with 19’5”.
Charlie English was the only competitor in the pole vault to clear 12 feet, putting himself in the top 25 of the state rankings in that event. Aaron Ali’s discus throw of 124’11” trailed only the 126’6” from C-NS’s Joe Main. Joe Pedrosa-Garcia ran to third in the 400 hurdles in 1:02.50, while Victor Rodriguez threw the shot put 41’7 1/2” for third place.
