Photos and write-up submitted by Coach Nicholas Burk.
The Batavia Indoor Track Team had a phenomenal meet yesterday competing in the Sectional Championships at RIT.
The girls' team accomplished an amazing feat, winning their 16th Sectional Championship in 18 years. This was their seventh consecutive championship.
The Blue Devils scored 92 points, edging out Pittsford Mendon with 89.5 points and Pittsford Sutherland with 82 points.
Batavia had a number of clutch performances, highlighted by our throwers. Rebekah Daniszewski won the Shot Put with a throw of 37-8.5, and Maggie Andersen won the Weight Throw with a throw of 44-11.75. Both girls have achieved the State and National standards in their events and will look to qualify for the NYS Championships next weekend.
Arianna Brown continued her impressive season winning the 55 Hurdles with a time of 9.07. She also finished in third in the High Jump clearing 5-0, and third in Long Jump with a 16-3.5. Sarah Adams finished second in the triple jump with a distance of 33-10 and second in Long Jump with a distance of 16-4.75. Sydney Konieczny had a very strong race in the 1000m finishing in secnd place with a time of 3:23.45.
Not to be outdone, older sister Gavin Konieczny was able to earn a second-place finish in the Pole Vault with a height of 9-0. Jianna Torcello and Liz Kingston finished in fourth and fifth place in the 1500m Racewalk.
Batavia's 4x800 Relay of Melanie Quinones, Sydney DellaPenna, Brooke Scott, and Makayla Andalora finished in fifth place with a time of 11:13.70 and the 4x400 Relay of Aurelia Colby, Sydney Konieczny, Maddie Taggart, and Noelia Ventura finished in fourth place with a time of 4:37.98.
This championship was a total team effort and demonstrated that the Batavia girls deeply care for the standard of excellence that the school has established in Section V Track and Field.
"Our strong desire to maintain our winning traditions each year lead our girls to compete at a very high level in this meet," said Coach Nicholas Burk. "We seem to always find a way to get the job done."
The boys' team had a very gritty performance while being down almost the entire meet, but inevitably finding a way to pull out the Championship in the last few events of the evening. Batavia finished with 105.5 points, edging Pittsford Mendon, who scored 101 points.
This is the boys' team's ninth Sectional Championship and its fourth consecutive one. Just like the girls, the boy's team was led by our Impressive group of throwers.
Batavia had seven out of 13 competitors in the Shot Put with Alex Rood repeating as the Sectional Champion with a throw of 54-9.5. Alex is currently ranked second in New York in the Shot and has the State and National Standard as well. Cody Eisenberger finished second in shot with a throw of 48-9.25 and Austyn Fernandez finished fifth with a throw of 42-5.
In the Weight Throw, Batavia had 10 out of 16 Competitors with Alex Rood finishing second with a throw of 53-10.25 and Cody Eisenberger finishing in fourth with a throw of 50-5.25.
The Batavia Pole Vaulters turned the tide of the meet with four athletes placing in the top six.
Daemon Konieczny won the Sectional Championship vaulting 11-6. Andrew Lin finished third with a height of 11-0; Jacob Torcello finished fourth with a height of 10-6; and Quinten Betances finished fifth with a height of 9-6. The 22 points from these athletes turned the tide in this meet and put Batavia ahead by four points with only three events left to score.
Daemon Konieczny finished off his very strong meet with a second place in the High Jump clearing 5-10 and a second place in the Triple Jump with a distance of 42-3.
Also in the high Jump, Jesse Reinhart finished fifth with a height of 5-8.
Batavia's distance athletes battled all meet long and had some clutch races which contributed to the team's success.
Garrick Havens placed fifth in the 3200m with a time of 10:25.39, and he was fourth in the 1600m with a time of 4:47.82. Mario Rosales placed fourth in the 1000m with a time of 2:47.53; Wyatt Gaus Finished sixth in the 1600m with a time of 4:48.48; and Jonah Epps placed fifth in the 600m with a time of 1:30.21.
Terrez Smith placed sixth in the 55m with a time of 6.73; and Jamarion Richardson placed sixth in the Long Jump with a distance of 20-5.25.
The boys' 4x800 Relay of Mario Rosales, Jonah Epps, Cody Harloff, and Garrick Havens had a very clutch performance, edging out a talented Pittsford Mendon team, finishing in second place with a time of 8:46.46.
The 4x400 Relay of Zack Anderson, Ayden Dowd-Devay, Wyatt Gaus, and Max Tomaszewski had a tremendous race, winning the Sectional Championship with a time of 3:44.38.
The final running event was the 4x200 Relay -- consisting of Terrez Smith, Joey Gefell, Gabriel Reyes Mercado, and Max Tomaszewski -- and they placed sixth with a time of 1:37.31.
This was a very impressive meet by the Batavia boys' team as they were down significantly through the first half of the competition.
Many of these athletes fought for those fifth- and sixth-place finishes, which turned out to be the difference in the meet. The depth of our team was on display as each group, the throwers, distance runners, jumpers, and sprinters scored points and contributed to the team's total score.
The Batavia Track and Field program has continued to demonstrate strong character, dedication, and toughness toward accomplishing the goal to uphold the tradition and reputation of the school's track teams.
A number of other athletes trained with Batavia this winter from other Genesee Region schools:
- Emily Tait -- Attica: second in the Class C Long Jump (18-4.5); second in the Class C Triple Jump (38-9.75)
- Veronica Duell -- Byron Bergen: third in Class C Long Jump (16-6.75); ninth in Class C 300m (47.96)
- Dylan Rykert -- Oakfield Alabama: first in Class D Weight Throw (39-4.25); first in Class D Shot Put (43-9.25)
- Zack Hall -- Oakfield Alabama: first in Class D 1000m (2:40.06)
- Nick Munger -- Oakfield Alabama: first in Class D Pole Vault (10-0); fifth in Class D 1000m (3:00.15)
- Fanny Vanegas -- Elba: first in Class D 1500m (5:26.71)
- Kelly Mickey -- Elba: third in Class D 55m (7.89); fifth in Class D 300m (46.32)
