EAST SYRACUSE – Yet another big local high school track and field meet took place last Friday when East Syracuse Minoa brought more than 20 boys and girls teams to Spartan Stadium for the ESM Invitational.
There were two different formats, with team scores kept on the girls side but not on the both side. Still, local sides, including ESM, Jamesville-DeWitt and Christian Brothers Academy, all put up winning efforts.
In the boys meet, ESM’s Jay-Neil McDuffie gave the home fans plenty to cheer about, starting in the 110-meter high hurdles by winning that event in 15.50 seconds, well clear of the 16.02 rom Marcellus’ Owen Alexander.
McDuffie also went 1-2 with Mikah Combs in the long jump, McDuffie winning with 20 feet 8 ¾ inches and Combs going 20’1” for second. In the 4×100, McDuffie, Combs, Hashim Abdi and Anthony Bryant beat the field with 41.84 seconds, more than a full second ahead of Auburn’s second-place 42.93.
Another win came for ESM when Ryan Sullivan, in the high jump, cleared 6’2” to edge out the 6’1” from PSLA-Fowler’s Damereon Gary and Cazenovia’s Eliot Comeau, while Charlie English won the pole vault by clearing 11’6” with fewer misses than Indian River’s Michael Rush as Jayden Recabo (10’6”) tied for fifth.
Aaron Ali was fourth in the shot put, heaving it 116’8” as K’Mari Jones (109 feet) was seventh, Andrew LeMarche getting fifth in the shot put with 42’11 ½” ahead of Victor Rodriguez (40’ ½”) in seventh place.
CBA saw Braydon Johnson dominate the 400-meter hurdles, pulling away to take first place in 59.33 seconds as ESM’s Joe Pedrosa-Garcia was second in 1:01.11.
This came after the Brothers’ quartet of Daniel Abbe, Zion Green, Jacob DuBrey and Shaun Pillpot go 3:59.20 in the sprint medley relay to edge ESM (3:59.59) for third place. Ben Chiodi was eighth in the 3,000 steeplechase in 11:30.74, with James Cass ninth and Daniel Abbe 11th in the 800-meter run. Amir Butler added a ninth (38’4 ¾”) in the shot put.
J-D’s girls finished fourth with 43 points, not far from the runner-up total of Cazenovia (49.25) as Cicero-North Syracuse ran away with the team title with 84 points.
Plenty of those points for J-D were earned in the discus, where Skylar Vaught beat the field with a throw of 109’10” and Kenna Ridzi was third with 97’5”. But then Ridzi won the shot put with 33’9” to edge the 33’7 ¾” from Indian River’s Asia Black, with ESM’s Aniyah Jones third by going 33’6 ¼”.
Victoria Payne won a tense 100-meter hurdles battle with C-NS’s Anna Eells, who was the top qualifier for the finals, but had to settle for second as Payne went 14.97 seconds and Eells finished in 15.04. Payne also helped the Red Rams take fourth in the 4×100 relay in 51.11.
Meghana Reddy won, too, her time of 2:27 flat in the 800-meter run just holding off the 2:27.23 from West Genesee’s Claire Griffin as Bishop Grimes runner Ella Reilly was third in 2:27.61 and CBA’s Katherine Williamson fourth in 2:27.91. Mary Jane Scott was fifth (1:12.32) and Amariyah McClinton sixth (1:12.73) in the 400 hurdles.
ESM had 32 points, led again by Akuot Kuany, who won the high jump when she cleared 5 feet and had fewer misses than Westhill’s Dericka Trotman. Kuany also was third in the 100 hurdles (15.85 seconds) behind Payne and Eells as teammate Neveah Hackett got fifth place in 17.52, Kuany taking seventh (34’8 ½”) in the triple jump.
The Spartans ran to third in the 4×800 in 10:32.24 as Elise Mancini tied for fifth in the pole vault (8 feet) and Amber Hayes took seventh and Isla Ellerton ninth in the 400 hurdles, with Jaelyn Jordan ninth in the 1,500-meter run.
Aside from Reilly, Bishop Grimes also had Telhia Hosea get third place in the 100-meter dash in 12.98 seconds after qualifying for the finals in 13.02, Hosea adding a fourth in the 200-meter dash in 27.32. CBA’s Ava LaValle ran to seventh in the 2,000 steeplechase in 8:25.61.
