Both on the boys and girls sides, the Baldwinsville track and field teams earned victories during last Thursday’s cold, wind-swept Section III state qualifying meet at Cicero-North Syracuse. Among those earning trips to this weekend’ state championships at Caledonia-Mumford was the Bees’ boys 4×800 relay team. Shaun Thompson, Alec Peinkofer, Andrew Fleming and Ethan Pacheck worked together for a victory in a time of 8:13.92, more than 40 seconds ahead of runner-up West Genesee.
Andrew Hoover won a classic 400-meter hurdles battle with Liverpool’s Keewan Rondinello. They got to the line together – but Hoover, in 57.26 seconds, edged Rondinello (57.28) by 0.02 seconds, though both will go to the state meet. Hoover was fourth in the 110 high hurdles in 15.07 seconds. And the B’ville girls chimed in during the 100-meter dash, where Gabrielle Jordan pushed to a time of 12.76 seconds, edging Mexico’s Chelse Beshures (12.85). Gina Carnovale was fourth in 12.95 seconds and Stephanie Vasteno (12.95 seconds) was sixth. Carnovale saved her big effort for the 200-meter dash, which she won in 26.66 seconds as Natalie Zazzara (Fayetteville-Manlius) was second in 22.98 seconds. In the 4×100 relay, Carnovale, Jordan, Vasteno and Cierra Allen were a close second (50.40 seconds) to Liverpool (50.21). On his own, Thompson qualified for the state meet by finishing second (9:47.03) to New Hartford’s Aaron Tompkins (9:45.23) in the 3,000-meter steeplechase. Elsewhere, Parker Kiff, Alex Nagy, Antonio Peck and Todd Mitchell were sixth in the 4×100 relay in 45.37 seconds, as Mitchell took sixth in the 200 and Peck was seventh in the 100. Mark Stanard was sixth (121 feet 4 inches) in the discus. Allen got to fifth in the girls 400 sprint in 1:03.11. Sierra Earle got fourth in the discus with a heave of 85 feet 7 inches and threw the shot put 31 feet 7 3/4 inches for fifth place. Mallory Warner was seventh in the Division I 2,000-meter steeplechase in 7:56.87, while Emily Soeder took seventh (5 feet) in the high jump.