SYRACUSE – It was the Westhill girls indoor track and field team rising to the top of the standings during Friday’s opening session of the Jack Morse Kickoff Meet at SRC Arena.
Picking up 103 points, Westhill held off Fayetteville-Manlius (86) for that top spot, with West Genesee sliding into third place with 73 points to go with a second-place finish of 68 points behind East Syracuse Minoa (107) in the boys portion.
Mallie Alt prevailed in the pole vault for Westhill, the only athlete to clear 9 feet with more points from Braylen Turner in fourth place and Isabella Gerasimovich in sixth place, while in the high jump Derricka Trotman beat the field clearing 5’2” as PSLA Fowler’s Amoni Gary was second topping 5 feet.
Emma Murphy got second place in the 55-meter hurdles in 9.01 seconds beating out Trotman (9.17) in third place while also getting second in the long jump with 16’11 3/4”.
Murphy also helped Westhill take second in the 4×200 relay in 1:56.97. Avery Starowicz added a second in the 3,000-meter run in 11:52.88 as Bishop Ludden had Haley Gilbertsen third in 12:19.52. Sabine Napolitano took fifth in the triple jump.
West Genesee was victorious in the 4×400 relay where Kelly O’Donnell, Kaelyn Stone, Miranda King and Bella Togias posted 4:33.72 to beat out Westhill (4:35.70) in second as Ludden took third in 4:36.01.
Amelia Jennings threw the shot put 33’3 1/4” to grab second place, with Westhill’s Jael Hill third at 31’6 1/2”. Eliana Freeman (35’9”) topped Jennings (34’7”) for fourth in the weight throw. Zaida Talev topped 7 feet in the pole vault for third place.
The Wildcats also had Claire Dickey take fourth at 1,500 meters as Claire Griffin was fifth in the 1,000-meter run. In the 4×800 relay WG (10:53.88) beat out Westhill (11:14.99) for third place.
Over in the boys meet WG completed a 4×400 sweep when Will Fettig, Nick Lamanna, Logan Scott and Rhison Williams posted 3:36.43, pulling away from runner-up Westhill’s 3:42.26. Then it won the 4×200 with Scott, Fettig, Williams and Dylan Frost tearing to a time of 1:33.45, more than five seconds ahead of the field.
Frost’s 6.67 seconds in the 55-meter dash was just behind the winning 6.60 of ESM’s Jay-Lin McDuffie and, in the long jump, Frost again was second to McDuffie with a top leap of 19’11”.
Mason Doran took third in the 1,000 in 2:54.78, with the Wildcats fourth in the 4×800 relay in 9:25.93. Landon Derbyshire earned third place in the weight throw for the Wildcats heaving it 51’1” and had a fourth-place shot put throw of 46’10 1/2”.
Westhill had Anthony Cardoso, in 4:50.70, take second at 1,600 meters with WG’s Dillan Holzwarth (4:58.42) in third place and Ludden’s Porter Sheen fifth.Owen Mulholland was third in the 300 in 37.83 seconds and Edward Popp fourth in the 3,200-meter run. Eric Holsten took fourth in the long jump.
A day later in the second session of the Morse meet four more local teams took their turns with Marcellus finishing third in the boys division getting 73 points behind only Baldwinsville and Cicero-North Syracuse.
The Mustangs’ Liam Eldridge won the 3,200 in 9:56.71, the only time under 10 minutes, while Owen Alexander edged C-NS’s Jaiden Tagliarino, 8.11 seconds to 8.12, to win the 55 hurdles as Alexander added a fourth in the shot put.
Xander Szalach, Paul Swenson, Cameron Stojkovski and Colden Kwasinowski beat the field in the 4×200 in 1:39.29 edging Cazenovia’s 1:39.46, Swenson later getting second in the triple jump going 40’10 1/4”. Eldridge led the Mustangs to second in the 4×800 in 9:13.12.
Ay-Zoh Shaw was second and Szalach third in the high jump, each clearing 5’10”, while Szalach added a fourth-place finish in the 300, while Jamison Palen was fifth in the 1,000 and Jack Lucio sixth in the 600.
Jordan-Elbridge thrower Roanan Ross got second in the shot put heaving it 41’11 1/2” as Solvay’s Dylan Mumford got second in the weight throw with 46’9” and his Bearcats teammate Giovanni Cilani took third (40’8”) in the triple jump.
On the girls side Marcellus was second in the 4×400 in 4:19.64 just half a second behind C-NS’s winning 4:19.14, with Madison Foy third in the 55 hurdles in 9.24 seconds and helping the Mustangs to fourth in the 4×200 in 1:52.85.
Skaneateles standout Mara Stanton won the girls weight throw heaving it 43’1” as no one else reached the 40-foot mark, while on the boys side the Lakers’ Ryan McCrone topped 11 feet in the pole vault to finish second.
Solvay stepped up as Gabrielle Willsey took third in the shot put heaving it 32’5” as Stanton (30’7 3/4”) was fourth. Kyria Davis took fourth in the 300 in 44.70 seconds and sixth in the long jump for the Bearcats.