Many of the area’s top indoor track and field teams are now practicing hard and gearing up for their trip to Cornell University’s Barton Hall for next Saturday’s New York State Public High School Athletic Association championship meet.
Before that, though, they first had to get through last Wednesday’s Section III state qualifier at SRC Arena, which featured a string of superb performances from athletes at four different schools.
East Syracuse-Minoa senior Nina Zesky was favored in the long jump, and had already won the event when she twice cleared her personal best, finishing up at 5 feet 6 inches, putting her among the list of medal contenders for the state meet.
In the girls 1,500-meter run, Fayetteville-Manlius junior Annika Avery ran a brilliant tactical race, overtaking West Genesee’s Laura Leff in the next-to-last lap and pulling away to win in four minutes, 41.19 seconds, with Leff second in 4:46.86. ESM’s Natalie Marra was third in 4:56.98.
Moving to the boys pole vault, Jamesville-DeWitt’s Zach Liebmann won the event by clearing 14 feet, while ESM’s Caiden Moynihan finished second (12 feet) to also earn a state meet berth. F-M’s Justin Jones (11’6”) finished fifth.
And CBA’s Anna Schug emerged victorious in the 55-meter dash, holding off Westhill/Bishop Ludden’s Tatiana Monds, 7.48 seconds to 7.55. Schug also finished fourth in the 300-meter dash in 41.79 seconds.
Schug’s teammate, Jack Brower, earned his own victory in the 600-meter run, pulling away in the homestretch to get a time of 1:24.68 over Baldwinsville’s Josh Perez (1:25.48) as ESM’s Jake Barker finished fourth in 1:27.95.
F-M won both of the 4×800 relay races. In the boys race, Bryce Millar, Andrew Berge’, Jon Abbott and Kyle Barber finished in 8:04.84, holding off West Genesee (8:06.90) at the wire. Avery, joining Alana Pearl, Jessica Howe and Jenna Farrell, posted 9:37.07 to roll past West Genesee (9:43.08) in the girls race.
Millar and Berge’ went 1-2 in the 3,200-meter run, Millar prevailing in 9:21.80 and Berge’ finishing second in 9:22.56 as Peter Ryan, who finished third in 9:24.88, also posted a time fast enough to advance to Cornell. Adam Hunt was fourth in 9:51.07.
The Hornets also saw Christabel Ezidiegwu win the triple jump, going 36’4 ½” to hold off J-D’s Patrece Martin (35’4 ½”), who finished second and also qualified for the state meet. In the long jump, Ezidiegwu went 16’9 ½”, just one inch behind C-NS’s Javielle Fanizzi (16’10 ½”), with ESM eighth-grader Mia Montgomery rising to third place with a top leap of 16’8”.
Barber joined Ed Cheathen, Parker Noble and Hamza ElHabbal, as F-M finished second(3:31.60), just behind Cicero-North Syracuse (3:31.15), in the 4×400 relay.
The Hornets finished second in the 4×400 relay as Anna Perrotti, Jessica Howe, Olivia Ryan and Natalie Zazzara posted 4:02.23, just behind Baldwinsville (4:01.48) at the line. Much the same thing happened in the 4×200 as Zazzara, Ryan, Perrotti and Nicole Amico finished in 1:49.53 and B’ville again won in 1:48.70.
ESM also had Jesse Perrone take fourth place in the 1,000-meter run in 2:38.66, while Jeremy McGrath was fourth (8.38 seconds) in the 55-meter hurdles. J-D’s Elena Haarer was fifth (1:43.66) and ESM’s Juliette Miller was sixth (1:45.46) in the girls 600-meter run.
In field events, Brooke DeRoberts cleared 9 feet and finished fifth in the girls pole vault, with ESM’s Alexis Bennik eighth (8 feet) and F-M’s Sophia Wojnovich tying for 10th place. CBA’s Connor Agnew was sixth (44’ ¾”0 in the boys shot put.
