SYRACUSE – All through Tuesday night’s Section III indoor track and field state qualifying meet at SRC Arena there were local athletes earning victories in everything from sprints to relays to field events.
By doing so, they helped make sure that the March 8 New York State Public High School Athletic Association championships at Staten Island’s Ocean Breeze complex will have plenty of rooting interests from different schools.
West Genesee won two boys events, including the Division I (large school) 4×200 relay where the quartet of Will Fettig, Logan Scott, Rhison Williams and Dylan Frost post 1:34.49 to beat second-place Cicero-North Syracuse’s 1:35.40.
This was after Frost finished fifth in the 55-meter dash in a state-meet qualifying time of 6.69 seconds to go with a 37.43 in the 300-meter sprint where he gained seventh place.
Moving to the 1,000-meter run, the Wildcats’ Michael Gomes went stride for stride with Fayetteville-Manlius’ Will Ditre all the way to the line where Gomes (2:38.47) edged Ditre (2:38.48) by one-hundredth of a second. WG’s 4×800 relay team took fifth place in 9:00.04.
Landon Derbyshire made his way to sixth place in the weight throw with a top throw of 54 feet 6 ½ inches, adding a 10th (44’3 3/4”) in the shot put.
For the WG girls, the 4×400 relay team of Nella Biesieda, Bridget Petrus, Bella Togias and Reagan Koch landed in third place in Division I with a time of 4:15.71.
Petrus, Koch, Biesieda and Chelsea Donaldson were fourth in the 4×200 in 1:53.39, while Claire Griffin made her way to fourth place in the 1,000-meter run posting 1:45.39 and helped the Wildcats to fifth (10:31.75) in the 4×800 as Amelia Jennings had a fifth-place shot put toss of 33’9 1/4”.
Marcellus was victorious in the boys Division II (small school) 4×800 relay where Ay-Zoh Shaw, Jamison Palen, Tobey Nilan and Liam Eldridge finished in 8:30.05 to hold off the 8:32.42 from Vernon-Verona-Sherrill. On his own, Shaw cleared 5’10” in the high jump for sixth place.
On the girls side for the Mustangs it was Madison Foy, Dorothy McMahon, Sophia Pilon and Corrine Aldrich going 1:49.35 to win a tense Division II 4×200 relay over Westhill who had Allison Langham, Emma Murphy, Ava Baty and Derricka Trotman land in second place in 1:49.75.
Foy was fifth in the 55 hurdles but her time of 8.62 seconds beat the state qualifying standard of 8.74 by a comfortable margin. Baty contended in the pole vault clearing 10 feet, which left her in fifth place as Mallie Alt topped 9’6” for seventh place.
Skaneateles had Mara Stanton take the title in the girls weight throw. Improving as she went along, Stanton threw it 46’4 1/2” to take the lead and then, on her last attempt, upped it to 47’4 as Pulaski’s Nora Tighe (45’8”) was second.
Meanwhile, in the boys pole vault Ryan McCrone nearly won it for Skaneateles. McCrone cleared 12’6” which matched the effort of Baldwinsville’s Owen Johnson, but Johnson had fewer misses.
Also for the Lakers, Lucy Fleckenstein qualified for the state meet in the 1,500-meter run with her time of 4:47.56 nearly two seconds better than the 4:49.54 she needed. Tritan Boucher was fifth in the boys 1,000 in 2:47.53.
Westhill beat the field in the boys Division II 4×400 as Eric Holstein, Nick Scheel, Gage Talucci and Owen Mulholland finished in 3:37.30 holding off a late charge from Cazenovia (3:38.23) in second place. Marcellus was fifth in 3:44.68, while Westhill was fourth in the 4×800 on both the boys and girls sides.
Bishop Ludden had its girls 4×400 relay team, composed of Charlotte Hsiao, Ainsley Mead, Mia DeCarlo and Alexi Sheen claim third place in Division II in 4:31.32, with the Gaelic Knights seventh in the 4×800.
