BOONVILLE – A steady march of improvement and growth for the Solvay boys track and field team culminated with a second-place finish at the Section III Class B-2 championships held Wednesday and THursday at Adirondack High School.
All told, the Bearcats picked up 82 points, well clear of third-place Clinton (68) and only behind Cazenovia’s winning 148. Jordan-Elbridge got 51.5 points to edge Skaneateles (50.5 points) for fifth place.
As Solvay’s best all-around athlete, Jairo DeJesus was victorious in the five-event pentathlon. Unfazed by a 24-hour weather delay that stretched the event over two days, DeJesus earned 2,414 points to top Canastota’s Marcus Relyea (2,142) as teammate Carson Rolince was sixth with 1,788.
Giovanni Cilani won, too, going 16.59 seconds in the 110 high hurdles to beat out the 16.90 of Cazenovia’s Braden Carnahan before he took fourth in the 400 hurdles in 1:02.95.
In the triple jump, Cilani’s 41 feet 3 ¾ inches was just one inch behind the 41’4 3/4” of Canastota’s Kole Otts, while Antwan Hicks was second in the long jump, his 20’5 3/4” beating everyone except Otts (21’8 3/4”).
Sam Chipman, Jakob Frost, Redd Long and Ed Puma were fourth in the 4×800 relay in 9:35.62 as Long took fourth in the 1,600-meter run in 5:00.43 and fourth (11:34.76) in the 3,000 steeplechase.
Skaneateles excelled in field events led again by Will Feeney and Ryan McCrone. All Feeney did in the discus was unleash a throw of 150 feet 1 inch, well clear of the 112’1” that put Solvay’s Dylan Mumford in second place as Henry McCormick (107’2”) was fifth.
In the shot put, Feeney tossed it 48’9” to win, with J-E’s Roanan Ross going 44’5 1/4” for second place and Jayden Bouchard fourth with a throw of 39’1 3/4” as McCormick again was fifth (38’6”) and Mumford sixth (38’2 3/4”).
Over in the pole vault, McCrone, by clearing 11’3”, easily topped a field of challengers that included J-E’s Temper MacCormack, who was third with 9’6”, and Ayden Campion, who tied the Lakers’ Patrick Hagen for fifth both clearing 9 feet.
Tritan Boucher ran a strong 2:00.43 at 800 meters, just five-hundredths of a second behind the winning 2:00.38 of Cazenovia’s Eliot Comeau as J-E’s Alex Kunz was fourth in 2:05.81.
The Lakers were third in the 4×400 relay in 3:39.70 and fourth in the 4×100 relay in 46.49 seconds, just ahead of Solvay’s 46.59 in fifth place. Ethan Goldberger added a sixth in the 400-meter dash in 55.20 as Andrew Peterscak was eighth and Finn Tate ninth.
J-E got a win from David Lawless in the 100-meter dash, his 11.68 seconds edging the 11.72 of South Jefferson’s Joe Latella as Solvay had Hicks third in 11.80 and Alex Michalkow fifth in 12.03.
Peyton Bates won for the Eagles, too, running the 3,000 steeplechase in 10:52.09, the only time under 11 minutes as Lawless got second in the 200-meter dash in 23.38 seconds, with Hicks third in 23.77.
In the girls sectional B-2 meet, Solvay had 32 points for sixth place and Skaneateles tied for seventh with 30 points.
Yet it was the Lakers getting two wins from Lucy Fleckenstein, who at 1,500 meters went 4:53.62 to beat the field by more than 10 seconds as teammate Tobi DiRubbo (5:24.98) was fourth.
Then Fleckenstein won the 800 in 2:20.23, more than five seconds ahead of the pack, chased by Bella Bjorling (2:31.61) in fourth place. DiRubbo added a fourth in the 3,000-meter run in 11:48.34 as Skaneateles was fifth in the 4×400 in 4:28.37.
Solvay, meanwhile, got a win from Gabrielle Willsey, whose shot put 31’10 1/2” beat out the 31’5 1/2” from Lowville’s Lily Lacey as Willsey added a fourth in the discus with 87’10”.
Kyira Davis went 13.30 seconds in the 100 sprint, a close second to Adirondack’s Jayden Kerfien’s 13.22. She also was sixth in the 400 hurdles (1:11.46), sixth in the long jump (15’1 1/2”) and helped Solvay take fifth in the 4×100 in 54.02.
Serenity Williams was third for Solvay in the triple jump, going 33’10 1/2”. J-E had only one-top six finish on the girls side, from Abby Bates, who ran the 2,000 steeplechase in 8:37.70.
