SYRACUSE – Long in the shadow of other large-school indoor track and field programs, West Genesee emerged from it this winter and capped a fine season with a second-place finish in Friday night’s Section III Class AAA championships at SRC Arena.
The Wildcats’ total of 80 points was comfortably ahead of the 65 from third-place Baldwinsville, though it was Cicero-North Syracuse taking the title with 128.5 points.
Claiming two different relays, WG took the 4×400 when Will Fettig, Rhison Williams, Logan Scott and Nick Lamanna went three minutes 30.44 seconds to beat out the 3:31.33 from C-NS and 3:32.22 from B’ville.
Far more lopsided was the 4×200 where Dylan Frost joined Fettig, Williams and Scott and put up a time of 1:32.45, more than three seconds better than the 1:35.69 from runner-up Fayetteville-Manlius.
Michael Gomes continued his win streak by taking the 600-meter run, his time of 1:24.21 nearly three seconds ahead of C-NS’s Dante Melfi (1:27.15), while Dillon Holzwarth got second in the 1,000-meter run in 2:43.05.
Landon Derbyshire earned the sectional title in the shot put as his first throw of 52 feet held up well, no one else topping the 45’3″ of Rome Free Academy’s Jacob Ciccone as Brandon Brooks (37’2 3/4″) was sixth. Derbyshire added a second in the weight throw, his 57′ 1/2″ just behind the 58’9 1/2″ of RFA’s Timothy Hill as Miles Ruggireo (43’8″) was eighth.
Frost made his way to second in the 300-meter sprint in 37.28 seconds behind F-M’s Nick Domashenko (36.23) and added a fifth in the 55-meter dash in 6.66, while Dan Kermes cleared 10’6″ in the pole vault and landed in third place. Alex Neuman was sixth in the 55 hurdles in 8.7 as the Wildcats were fifth in the 4×800 relay in 9:10.80.
Over in the girls sectional Class AAA meet, WG picked up 39 points and finished sixth, again with C-NS (171 points) on top, with nearly half the points stemming from the throwing events.
In the shot put the Wildcats’ Amelia Jennings was third with 33’9 1/2″ and Eliana Freeman got fourth place with 32’2″, but Freeman improved to second place in the weight throw going 34’9″ to only trail the 38’11” of RFA’s Keyonna Mitchell.
Claire Griffin made her way to third place in the 600 in 1:43.70 as Andrea Conklin was eighth. Nella Biesiada, Bridget Petrus, Bella Togias and Reagan Koch were third in the 4×400 in 4:17.09 before a 4×200 where Biesiada, Koch, Sofia Barba and Molly Doran were third in 1:52.35.
Thalia Petrie was seventh in the 3,000-meter run in 11:20.41 and helped WG to sixth in the 4×800 in 10:55.20. Zaida Talev cleared 7’6″ for sixth place in the pole vault and Mikenna Komuda had a personal-best high jump of 4’8″ for sixth place.
