Each of the Canastota track and field teams would strive for wins — and further advancement — during last week’s state qualifying meets at Cicero-North Syracuse’s Bragman Stadium.
Jeff Willis would once again prevail in the pole vault during Saturday’s boys qualifier. The Section III record-holder held off Adridonack’s Andre Adkins by clearing 14 feet to Adkins’ 13 feet 6 inches.
As an added bonus, Willis attempted to go one inch over that sectional mark, at 14 feet 8 inches, but could not pull it off. He’ll try again during this weekend’s state meet, also at CNS.
Robbie Argentine ran his way to third place in the mile in 4:31.83, not far from Chris Moore (Westhill), who won in 4:26.80. Argentine, Aaron Walker, Nick Darcangelo and Alex Spara were third in the 4×800 relay in 8:24.26.
Alex Lang took fifth in the Division II (small school) 110-meter high hurdles in 16.03 seconds and sixth in the 400-meter hurdles in 59.49 seconds. Walker got ninth in the 800-meter run (2:05.90).
In the girls meet, Allison Lasnicki dominated the Division II portion of the 3,000-meter run, blazing out from the start and never letting other contenders get close.
Lasnicki posted a time of 10 minutes, 22.61 seconds, second overall to Fayetteville-Manlius star Courtney Chapman (10:07.47) and more than half a minute ahead of the Division II runner-up, Westhill’s Heather Clancy (10:58.05).
Also, in the 4×800 relay, Canastota finished fifth in Division II as Lasnicki, Francesca Popple, Florentina Gelbman and Carolyn Bradford posted a time of 10:22.25.