OBSERVER Photo by Tim Frank
Dunkirk’s Johnee Thomas competes in the Division 2 400 meters at the New York State Public High School Athletic Association Track & Field Championships on Friday at Cicero-North Syracuse High School.
CICERO — With two weather delays Friday, the boys Division 2 1,600-meter relay at the New York State Public High School Athletic Association Track & Field Championships at Cicero-North Syracuse High School found itself in the prime-time slot with Dunkirk and Randolph holding the top two seeds.
Well, it was worth the wait for spectators — and most of all the Randolph boys who edged out the Marauders for first place.
Randolph’s fast team was composed of Dempsey McDonald, Diego Stradi, Roan Kelly and Talon Rowland who ran a time of 3:19.75, beating the Dunkirk quartet of Nathan Carlson, Michael Hanlon, Lucas Lawrie and Johnee Thomas at 3:21.47.
Both teams come back this morning with a shot at the Federation Championship.
Randolph and Dunkirk were both expected to finish in the top two spots, while Maple Grove senior Jonah Foley completely surprised himself in the triple jump.
OBSERVER Photo by Christian Storms
From the left, Randolph’s Diego Stradi, Dempsey McDonald, Talon Rowland and Roan Kelly pose for a photo after winning the Division 2 4×400-meter relay at the New York State Public High School Athletic Association Track & Field Championships at Cicero-North Syracuse High School on Friday.
P-J photo by Christian Storms
After faulting on his first two attempts, Foley was down to his last shot and he absolutely crushed it with a personal record of 45 feet, 5.25 inches to thrust himself into second place after three jumps.
Battling through injury to reach that distance, Foley elected to pass on his final three attempts and, to his surprise, the distance stood for second place in Division 2. The champion was Aiden Bryant of Midlakes, who jumped 47-8.75.
Maple Grove was 7-thousandths of a second away from another second-place finish with sophomore Ethan Verbosky snagging third in the 800 meters at a time of 1:56.968, right behind Saranac Lake’s Jake Kollmer’s 1:56.961.
Winning was Michael Huebner of Shoreham Wading River at 1:54.26.
Foley finished the day with the long jump. Battling through the back injury, he was unable to make it past the first cut and ended in 17th place with a distance of 20-1. Falconer sophomore Roger Markham competed with Foley in long jump and his first attemp sent him into the final eight. Markham’s fourth jump went 21-10 to earn him sixth in Division 2.
Jamestown’s Noah Burch missed the cut in Division 1 after jumping 21-1.75 to claim 14th place.
Prior to winning his relay, Rowland competed individually in the 400 meters, as did Thomas from Dunkirk. Rowland’s time of 49.44 earned him sixth, while Thomas finished at 51.17 in eighth. Competing in Division 1, Burch earned ninth in the 400 meters at 51.24.
Rowland returns tomorrow to compete in the Federation event along with Division 2 champion, Tully’s Ryan Rauber.
Randolph started the day with Eve Adams in the pole vault making just her first jump of 8-0. The Division 2 girls pole vault champion ended up being Paige Harding of Section V’s Oakfield-Alabama with a height of 11-6. Eve’s brother, Maverick, competed between delays in the discus and finished 15th with a distance of 137-0.
While the weather impacted everyone once it started, some events were in progress when the meet was delayed and that included Southwestern senior Neves Hoose who was preparing for the 110-meter high hurdle portion of the pentathlon.
Then it happened again.
Right when Hoose was warming up for the shot put and during the second heat of the boys 400 meters, the rain came down again the hardest it had all day.
No matter what was thrown at him, Hoose was able to stay focused and the first-year competitor has himself in fantastic position at second in Division 2 of the pentathlon with two events to go on Saturday.
Joining Hoose in a successful day for the Trojans was the girls 1,600-meter relay team of Avery Johnson, Triniti Card, Marlana Cresanti and Alexi Grijalva which placed fifth with a time of 4:02.70. Grijalva also competed individually in the 400 meters and ran a time of 1:00.48.
The 400-meter hurdles featured Southwestern’s Declan Kennedy and both him and Dunkirk’s Hanlon qualified for tomorrow’s Federation meet after placing fifth and fourth, respectively, at 55.88 and 55.65.
Southwestern brought two athletes to the field as shot putters in Leo Kavic and Mikayla Johnson. Kavic’s first throw was his best as he tossed 48-5.75 for eighth place, while fellow sophomore Johnson missed the cut with 33-8.25 to grab 11th place.
Action picks back up again this morning at Cicero-North Syracuse High School.