The Oneida Daily Dispatch (Oneida, NY)
Local schools compete in Oneida Invitational
More than a dozen Section III teams traveled to Oneida on Saturday to take part in the annual invitational.
More than a dozen Section III teams traveled to Oneida High School on Saturday for the annual Oneida Invitational.
As with last year’s event, Oneida senior Juliana Cavanagh proved her pedigree in the triple jump, taking the event with a 35-07.50, a quarter inch better than Proctor contender Marquesha Ware.
Fayetteville-Manlius walked away from the invitational with the overall title and a team score of 145.
The Camden Blue Devils finished second in the girls overall category with a 68.8, aided by a strong showing from MacKenzie Mix. Mix finished first in the 100 meter with a time of 13.08, just edging Canastota junior Devin Lee Robinson. Elizabeth Lucason was another Blue Devil to take home the top score in an event, earning first in the 800meterwith a 2:18.27. Catherine Siedl finished second in the 3,000 meter for Camden; a 4x400 team consisting of Mayia Turner, Lucason, Delainey Hebble, and Haley Hinds also placed second for Camden; a 4x800 team of Morgan Lucason, Lucason, Hebble, andMix took second in the 4x800.
Canastota placed fourth overall with a 53, buoyed by a first place 4x100 finish from a team of Alexandria Phillips, Robinson, Laura Suppa, and McKenzie Leahey.
Oneida finished in eighth place with a 23. In addition to Cavanagh’s win, Oneida junior Grace Coulter finished third in the pentathlon.
Hosting Oneida took 10th place in the overall boys scoring. Camden was just edged out of third place by Carthage, the latter side posting a 63 for third place while the Blue Devils finished with a 62 to place fourth. Vernon-VeronaSherrill finished sixth overall with a 47, followed by Canastota with a 35.6.
the highest pole vault of the day with a 12-06.00. Zander Farr also had a strong showing for the hosts, taking second in the triple jump with a 37-02.5.
Canastota senior Brandon Otts claimed the 100 meter dash with a 12.06.
VVS junior Cory Couture captured the 200 meter dash, posting the only sub-24 time with a 23.86. An extra 200 meters did not seem to bother Couture much as he took the 400m as well courtesy of a 51.26. Red Devil senior Owen walker clinched second place in the 3200m with a 9:42. Walker and Couture also played a role in a second place 4x800 second place finish for the Red Devils, working with Trevor Kline and Eli Creedon for a 9:02.25.
Camden senior Tim Cook took home second place in the 800m, posting a 2:01.61. Camden’s Matthew Lucero posted a 1:01.51 in 400m hurdles, finishing second with a time of 1:01.51. Also advancing the Blue Devil cause on Saturday was the 4x400 team of Tim Cook, Ethan Flatt, Hunter Keil and Josh Mayden that finished in 3:47.00 for second place. On the field side of things, Blue Devil senior Steven VanHoeven placed second in the shot put courtesy of a 43-07.00 heave.
Wilder started on the point with Sheppard f lanked to the outside. Sheppard gained the top position at the green flag. He worked the high lane around the speedway pulling away in the early go of the 100-lap affair. Sheppard had a amassed a comfortable advantage when the caution came out on lap 16 for a slowing Jimmy Cottrell.
Action got back underway with Sheppard and Wilder at the front of the field. Sheppard continued to lead by the time the race got to lap 20 with Fuller taking second from Wilder. Fuller gave a Sheppard a challenge but just didn’t have enough to get by.
Sheppard pulled away before catching traffic on lap 33. His efforts in trafficwere short lived as the caution was necessary for a slowing Lance Willix who had a right rear tire go south. The green came with Sheppard leading while Wilder make a run at him on the outside. He wasn’t able to make the move for the lead.
At the midway point of the race Sheppard was back in slower traffic being tracked by Wilder and Mat Williamson. The traffic impeded Sheppard’s pace allowing Wilder to start to close the gap. The race was picking up before the race was slowed by another caution for a slowing Glenn Forward on lap 62.
The final third of the race was run without caution with Sheppard on the point and Wilder lurking back in second. Wilder never allowed Sheppard to get to far away from him as he stayed less than a second behind.
Sheppard began searching the race track on lap 75 as Wilder’s pace began to quicken. The lead for Sheppard got smaller and smaller while they also fought the challenge of slower cars at the back of the pack. Now the action at the front picked up.
On lap 82 Sheppard got bottled up a bit on the bottom of turns three and four and Wilder rocketed around his outside to take over the lead. This forced Sheppard to regroup whileWilder now showed theway, but the race was far from over.
Wilder worked high, Sheppard low with the pair only a few feet apart while Williamson added himself tothemix for the lead. Sheppard wrestled the lead back away from on lap 90 on the bottom of turns three and four with Wilder literally on his bumper.
The final ten laps saw a wild three car battle at the front between Sheppard, Wilder and Williamson. Sheppard held his line on the bottom while Wilder blasted the top. Williamson sat third looking for the open door.
Wilder made his move on the final lap through turns three and four. He got a huge run off the exit of corner to pull along-side of Sheppard coming to the checkered flag. Sheppard was able to win by .042 seconds at the line.
Wilder had to settle for second while Williamson came home third. Larry Wight advanced from the seventh position to finish in the fourth spot while Billy Dunn came from eighth to finish fifth.
Kyle Kiehn andMike Button led the 28-car Broedel Energy Sportsman starting field the green flag with grabbing the early lead. Buttonwould remain the leader after a couple of quick cautions in the early portion of the 20-lap main event. While Button was looking for his first Utica-Rome win in over a decade, it was sixth place starter AJ Filbeck making moves to gain the third spot by the end of the second circuit, Filbeck pressured second place running Kiehn for the next handful of laps, finally slipping by on lap seven.
Filbeck’s charge continued as he immediately caught front running Button and as the field hit the halfway point the of the event, Filbeck completed his charge to the front as he went around Button for the top spot. Filbeck would lead the remainder of the event, holding off several late challenges Kyle Inman. Filbeck would score the opening night win over Inman, Kiehn, Dave Marcuccilli, and Tommy Collins Jr.
Nick Stone took command of the Ted’s Body Shop Pro Stock 20-lapmain event, charging from his fourthplace starting spot to lead the opening lap. Stone’s run ended on the fifth circuit as his left front tire came off the car, which handed the lead over to Pete Stefanski. Stefanski would only lead lap six however, as Shane Henderson slipped by as lap seven was scored.
Defending track cham- pion Mike Welch was the next driver to get by Stefanski, and he immediately set his sights on the leader Henderson. Welch repeatedly showed his nose to the Henderson but was unable make the pass. With five to go, Welch dove underneath Henderson in turn one and was able to slide up in front of Henderson as they exited turn two. Welch would lead the remaining circuits to grab thewin overHenderson, Stefanski, TravisWelch, and Bill Knapp.
Addison Bowman took the lead on seven of the Rookie Sportsman main event to take his first UticaRome Speedway checkered flag with Ted Starr, Casey Cunningham, Dave Boisclarr, and Alexis Jacobs.
Racing action resumes on Sunday, May 20, when Wilber-Duck Chevrolet and Bill Herrig’s Auto Parts presents PICK 4 Show and Stockbridge Valley Reading Challenge presents the DirtTrackDigest.comDIRTcar 358-Modifieds, Broedel Energy DIRTcar Sportsman, Ted’s Body Shop DIRTcar Pro Stocks, and Rookie Sportsman. Gates will open at 3 p.m. with racing at 6 p.m.