SYRACUSE – Strong performances from Fayetteville-Manlius and Jamesville-DeWitt athletes provided the main local highlights for Tuesday night’s Section III indoor track and field state qualifying meet at SRC Arena.
Though a large contigent of stars were already headed to Staten Island’s Ocean Breeze complex for this Saturday’s New York State Public High School Athletic Association meet based on their work earlier this season, many still stood out here.
This included F-M boys sprinter Nick Domashenko, who with his time of 6.36 seconds in the 55-meter dash got close to the sectional record of 6.33 set by Corcoran’s Dion Alexander back in 1991.
Alex Shim was third as his 6.64 also qualifed him for the state meet, while Domashenko moved to the 300-yard sprint and finished second in 35.85 to the 35.21 of Tully’s Ryan Rauber as Buchi Nwokedi reached the state meet with a fourth-place triple jump of 44 feet 7 ¼ inches more than a foot ahead of the 43’6” needed.
Will Ditre nearly won the 1,000-meter run, rallying late to catch West Genesee’s Michael Gomes at the line but seeing his time of 2:38.48 one-hundreth of a second behind Gomes’ 2:38.47. William Beecher got third in the 600-meter run posting 1:27.53 and Ditre went 4:38.04 in the 1,600-meter run for fifth place.
On the girls side for F-M, Izzie Sullivan dominated the 3,000-meter run finishing in 9:47 flat as no other runner even broke the 10-minute mark. Camille Ryan was third in the 600 finishing in 1:41.17, with Jordan Giannetti seventh in the 1,500-meter run.
Sullivan and Ryan, joined by Claire McDonald and Ella Halbig, went step-for-step with Cicero-North Syracuse in the Division I (large school) 4×800 relay but won it with 9:29.10 to the Northstars’ 9:29.66 as Sullivan overtook Gabby Putman during the anchor leg of the race.
As for J-D, throwers Kevin Vigneault and Skyler Vaught won one event apiece. In the boys weight throw Vigneault sent it 61 feet 6 inches on his fourth attempt to beat out the 60’11 3/4” from South Jefferson’s Mason Beattie. Vigneault’s shot put of 52’4 1/2” on his final throw was a close second to the 52’6 1/2” of Whitesboro’s Anthony Tobiasz who also achieved it on his last attempt.
Meanwhile, Vaught beat the field in the shot put heaving it 38’11 1/4”, more than two feet clear of the field, while in the weight throw her top attempt of 45’6 1/2” was good for third place and a state meet berth as teamamte Odo Ukoreke finished fifth with an initial throw of 41’4 3/4” just ahead of the 41’1 1/2” from F-M’s Michelle Ifeonu.
Ellyana Deng reached the state meet in the long jump, her top leap of 17’5 3/4” beating the 17’2” she needed as she also finished 10th in the triple jump. The boys Red Rams were third in the Division I 4×200 relay posting 1:36.72 and fourth in the Division I 4×400 relay in 3:49.44 as Amar Lopez was fifth (41’9”) in the triple jump.
East Syracuse Minoa had Amber Hayes make it to the state meet in the girls 55 hurdles finishing fourth in 8.43 seconds to easily surpass the state qualifying standard of 8.74. Laura Olmstead was eighth in the weight throw going 37’11” and Rachael Burt was sixth in the 3,000m
Jay-Neil McDuffie got a time of 7.70 seconds in the boys 55 hurdles second only to the 7.23 from C-NS’s Camron Ingram who holds the sectional record of 7.18 in this event, adding a third-place long jump of 22’5 1/4” in an event where he already had qualified for the state meet. Sadak Abdi went 40’8” in the triple jump to take eighth place.
Christian Brothers Academy saw Quinten Lewis earn a berth in the state meet in the triple jump with a third-place leap of 45 feet. Lewis, Braydon Johnson, Xavier Caesar and Jayden Bowden-Henry were third in the Division II (small school) 4×200 relay in 1:37.30, not far from Clinton’s winning 1:36.39.
