Story and photo gallery: Canisteo boys, Hornell girls take first at historic Elk's Spring Day Invitational in Wellsville

Story by CHRIS BROOKS, photos by @iambrooksie and @thejoshmedia on Instagram

WELLSVILLE — It’s the oldest high school track and field invitational in all of New York State. Around here, it’s an event like no other.

Bright and early Saturday morning, the Wellsville Elks Spring Day had arrived in full force for its 91st annual installment. Nearly 20 schools, ranging from as far north as Barker and to as far east as Odessa Montour, all converged at one place and at one time to battle it out on the track and from the field for top honors in the event of the Spring.

With the rain holding off entirely, several meet records being smashed and many personal bests being achieved every step of the way, one team would emerge from the fog as this year’s grand champion. In the end, there was a changing of the guard between the top two teams from last season’s running — defending champion Pioneer and runner-up Canisteo-Greenwood.

Now, it was the Chargers who took command in the dead heat of battle across the board between the top five schools vying for the top spot, as they used an electric performance from their boys team, along with a strong fifth place finish from their girls team to assemble a 173.583-point first place conclusion to claim this year’s Elks Spring Day team championship.

Behind a plethora of secondary finishes, the Chargers recorded six first place finishes to propel their ascension to the top of the standings, with the boys team garnering four of them to lead the way.

Amongst the winners were Carson Chaffee (100 dash), Dylan Depew-Cappadonia (3000 steeplechase), and a tie for the tallest height in the pole vault between Mathias Sharp and Will Hosmer, each reaching 12 feet. The team would also collect a victorious 400 relay finish from the team of Chaffee, Jonah Burns, Ashton Davis and Gavin Bob.

The Lady Chargers chipped in with two more wins of their own to aid their fifth place finish, as Kassidy Gardner (1500 run) and Kora Dininny (pole vault) each collected a win.

Following a second place overall finish from defending champion-turned-runner-up Pioneer, the Lions of Wellsville were in a neck-and-neck battle with the Chargers for most of the afternoon before a late surge by the Panthers allowed them to hurdle their way into the passenger’s seat.

After it all, the team would settle on a third place finish with 160 points behind outstanding performances in both spectrums of competition.

Captaining the Lions boys team, JJ Howard would follow up his MVP performance from the field in the Hornell Invitational with another display of MVP greatness, as he picked up three first place finishes in the high jump, long jump and triple jump. The prior of the three events Howard would share top honors with Genesee Valley/Belfast’s Callahan Tallman, each recording a victorious height of 6-1.

Following up Howard was Xavier Scott on the track with the team’s final top individual finish, as he raced to glory with a 110 hurdles first place conclusion. Wellsville would also collect two relay victories along the way, with the team of Noah Joslyn, Kamron Dodge, Jack Davis and Collin Perkins all converging to score a 3200 relay win.

The 4×55 shuttle hurdle relay team of Scott, Howard, Davis and Evan Billings recorded the last win to finish off the Lions victories for the boys team.

As for the Lady Lions, they grab three more humongous victories led by perennial thrower Kaylee Oswald, who proceeded to sweep both events with her winning distances in the shot put and discus — the latter of the two events she would rewrite the history books with a brand new meet record of 121-5.

Oswald nearly garnered a second meet record, falling nearly five feet shy of smashing another of Sue Ann Livergood’s records, this one first being established in 1988 in the shot put event.

Brooklyn Dahlgren had the team’s last top finish, soaring to the winning height in the high jump for the Lady Lions, who finished just a single point shy of third place behind Pioneer, with 68 points.

In fourth place overall between their two teams, the Hornell Red Raiders witnessed five top individual finishes along with a pair of relay victories to help put the pieces of the puzzle together for another strong showing, including the Lady Red Raiders and their 86-point top finish.

Helping lead the path forward were Ella White and Selena Maldonado, as the two used their speed to run fast and furiously to the finish line, where each of them crossed first to capture victories in the 100 and 200 dashes, respectively.

Hornell would also scavenge a win in the 400 relay from the team of White, Riley Harwood, Marianne Colson and Delainey Thompson.

The boys collected a pair of wins from Kellen Crowe to lead the field, as he claimed gold with his winning times in the 200 and 400 dashes on the track. Following up was a strong performance from Jake Phillips, who galloped his way to a 400 hurdles triumph.

Like the ladies, they too would collect a relay victory, as the team of Crowe, Phillips, Xzavier Patrick and Demayne Dixon came away triumphant in the 1600 relay.

Spring Day would also see some more incredible top finishes from even more local talent unravel across the morning and afternoon, with Avoca-Prattsburgh seeing two individual winners come back home victorious, as Madison Fitzwater and Olivia Kilmer won in the steeplechase and long jump, respectively.

Fillmore would join the party with a dynamic run from Henry Sardina, as he sped his way to the finish line with a winning time in the 800 run.

In the heat of competition, Springville-Griffith Institute’s Linnea Neureuther made some history herself in the team’s second place finish behind Hornell, as she smashed three meet records, which is a new meet record in itself, becoming the newest all-time leader in both the 100 and 400 hurdles, as well as the triple jump.

Before all of the action came to fruition at around 9:30 in the morning, Wellsville hosted their annual Senior Day celebration, as the boys and girls teams honored all 14 of their seniors for their endless and magnificent contributions to the program since the very beginning of their track and field journeys.

The boys team honored Joslyn, Thomas Cooke, Sean Driscoll, Nathaniel Flansburg, Aidan Jadwin, Ben Jordan and Landon Cinque, while the Lady Lions paid homage to their seniors Allie Bidzerkowny, Emily Budinger, Harmony Brantley, Kaylie Fuller, Grace Kinnicutt, Edahlia Sebastian and Lauren Viglietta.

Spring Day Combined Team Standings (Top 10)