Six Teams Win Section 6 Titles

Feb 19, 2019

For the first time in recent memory, no team was able to sweep a classification at the Section 6 Team Champs. Hamburg came the closest to sweeping their class, winning the girls class B title and just missing dethroning the now-8 time defending champion Sweet Home, by 1 point. The Lancaster boys, a favorite every year, won the class A title, with the Orchard Park girls claiming the class A girls title. Cheektowaga won their 3rd straight Class C boys title, with the combination team of East Aurora/Holland winning their 2nd straight girls Class C team title.

Lancaster got off to a good start with Armani Merlino taking the overall title in the 3200 meters, in a NYS #5 time, for what he hopes is a prelude to next week.

Lancaster also dominated in the throwing events on the boys side taking home 1st and 2nd place amongst class A competitors in both the shot and weight with John Surdej winning the shot in 60'8.25", and teammate Andy Pietrantoni finishing in 2nd in the shot (50'.25") and winning the weight (65'11.75). Individually Niagara Falls junior Abraham Averhart posted the fastest time by a section 6 athlete in the 55 meters winning the overall championship in 6.61 seconds.

In the class A girls Orchard Park senior Jenna Crean led the way winning the class A title in the 300 meters, however it was Tapestry 7th grader Jada Kenner taking the overall 300 title with an impressive 40.30 mark. Crean was also 2nd in the 55 meters to Lockport's Kahniya James. Lockport also scored 10 points with Sydney Nowicki's win in the 1500, as she had just enough on the last lap to outdistance Amherst's Mallory Grubb and West Seneca West's Anna Rybczynski. Leah Pasqualetti helped out Crean with the overall win in the pole vault in a personal best 12'6, and also finished 3rd in the class A 55 meters.

In boys class B it was Sweet Home's Kaleb Luton leading the way to getting the Panthers their 8th straight section 6 title. Kaleb won the overall title in the triple jump, with a personal best 46'2 (NYS #10), and won the class B title in the 55 hurdles, also a personal best 8.00. He then finished his meet running on the class B winning 4x400 team to help earn 30 team points. His effort allowed the Panthers to hold off Hamburg by 1 point.

On the girls side of class B Hamburg dethroned defending champion Sweet Home, and held off Amherst to win the section title. Hamburg used their depth in the sprint to score 18 points in class B with Claire Danyluk winning the class B section in 42.13 (41.68 in prelims) and teammate Charlotte Reczek was 2nd in class B in the 300 running 44.24. Those girls also teamed back up in the 4x400 relay to win the overall title in a WNY leading 4:11.39.

In Class C boys Cheektowaga won their 3rd straight title on the strength of their field events. Sophomore Jayden DuBard won the class C title in both the shot put and weight throw, while senior Jake Kaminski took the overall win in the high jump, and was 2nd in class C in the triple jump. Freshmen teammates CJ Krzanowicz and Isaiah Harris took 2nd and 3rd place respectively in the class C long jump. Those performances pushed the Warriors to 34 point victory of the East Aurora/Holland team.

However in the class C Girls the East Aurora/Holland team more than doubled 2nd place Depew, amassing 157 points. Freshman Megan McLaughlin took the overall win in the 1000 meters, and senior Serena Pagano pulled the slight upset winning the overall title in the shot put with a personal best throw of 37'9.25. This sets up quite the contest on Thursday at the state qualifier meet.

In Thursday's state qualifier meet the end of the meet should be exciting with all 3 girl relays being too close to have a true favorite at this point. In the girls 4x200 it looks like a battle with Lancaster, Tapestry, and Orchard Park. The girls 4x400 is too close to call with Hamburg, Dunkirk, Lockport, and Holland/EA all in the mix, and the girls 4x800 could be a nail biter with EA/Holland and Amherst both looking strong.

Girls Class A (top 5)

1. Orchard Park-119

2. West Seneca West-102

3. Lancaster-95

4. Lockport-61.5

5. Frontier-55

Girls Class B (top 5)

1. Hamburg-122

2. Amherst-100

3. Sweet Home-94

4. Grand Island-86

5. North Tonawanda-71