SYRACUSE – Buoyed by strong efforts in relay events, the Baldwinsville girls indoor track and field matched their boys counterparts with a third-place finish in Friday night’s Section III Class AAA championships at SRC Arena.
Their point totals nearly matched, too, with the girls Bees earning 61 points just behind the boys’ total of 65, though both ended up chasing Cicero-North Syracuse who swept the girls (171 points) and boys (128.5) titles, with Liverpool’s girls and West Genesee’s boys in second place.
B’ville’s girls were victorious in the 4×200 relay, an event usually dominated by C-NS and Liverpool, but here Aaniya Johnson, Emerson Clavijo, Amerie Williams and Kamryn Barton went one minute 48.28 seconds to top the 1:48.52 from the Northstars, This was after a 4×400 where Johnson, Williams, Clavijo and Emmy Buchanan and Emerson Clavijo went 4:05.35, just beat out by C-NS’s winning 4:05.17.
Individually the Bees dominated the shot put thanks to Julianna Gingrich and Leah Bahamonde, with Gingrich throwing it 36 feet 1 1/2 inches to land in the top 25 of the state rankings and Bahamonde second going 34’1″.
Barton went 3:03.32 in the 1,000-meter run to land in the state top 50 and finish fourth as Yolanda Wei was ninth (3:11.97), Isabella Arria 10th and Erin Seitzer 11th. Later, in the 1,500-meter run, Barton finished fifth in 4:59.65, again with Wei in ninth place. In the 4×800 Wei, Mariah LeGrow, Madelyn Donhauser and Veda Steinemann posted 10:30.71 for fifth place.
Kate DeFio finished third in the pole vault, clearing 8 feet, just ahead of Ella Foster topping 7’6″ and getting fifth place. Isabella DeStephano was fourth in the weight throw with a personal-best 32’3″ and Isabella Mitts (30’3″) was sixth as Nicole Pelletier and Mya Bregande tied for ninth in the high jump each topping 4’6″.
Buchanan went 1:45.46 for sixth place in the 600-meter run as Mariah LeGrow finished 10th. Donhauser went 3,000 meters in 11:09.23 to grab sixth place as Clavijo, in 7.77 seconds, edged Adrianna Pritchard (7.82) and Sydney Neish (7.85) for sixth place in the 55-meter dash. Johnson took sixth in the 300-meter sprint in 44.74.
Meanwhile, B’ville’s boys earned a victory in the pole vault thanks to Owen Johnson, who skipped every height until clearing 12’6″ and then topped himself by landing a 13-foot vault on his second attempt. No one else topped 10’6″ as Andrew Fry was eighth clearing 8’6″. Kayden Gilbert nearly won, too, his 5’10” in the high jump topped only by the 6’1″ of Auburn’s Amadi Onyeani.
Jacob Guelli got third in the 3,200-meter run in 10:08.80, with Wyatt Decker grabbing fourth place in the 600 in 1:27.73 ahead of Logan Bolton (1:30.05) in eighth place. Dom Dottolo, in 4:50.59, held off Guelli (4:51.60) for fourth place in the 1,600-meter run as Dottolo, Guelli, Bolton and Peyton Brutcher were fourth in the 4×800 posting 9:08.24.
In the 4×400 Decker, Rex Kirkegaard, Chris Zellar and George Bauer was third in 3:32.22 not far from West Genesee’s winning 3:30.44, with the 4×200 quartet of Kirkegaard, Gilbert, Arthur Bullock and Iggy Lomedico third in 1:36.08. Cam Davis added a third in the weight throw going 53’11 1/2″ as Adedamola Olayisade was ninth with 43’5 3/4″.
Decker returned for the triple jump where his 40’9″ put him in fourth place ahead of London Premo’s fifth-place 40’3 1/4″. Premo also finished fifth going 20’3 1/4″ to beat out the sixth-place 19’10 1/2″ from Zellar,
Brutcher took seventh in the 1,000 in 2:53.52 and Premo was ninth in the 55 hurdles in 9.15 seconds as Zellar took ninth in the 300 in 39.31 just ahead of Matt Niedzialek’s 39.68. Bryce Muthumbi had a personal-best 36’6″ in the shot put for eighth place, with Davis 10th going 35’1 1/2″.
