Despite the high amount of pedigree in the Fayetteville-Manlius track program, it was not expected to bring home any titles from last Saturday’s state indoor championship meet at Cornell University.
Which only made the dual gold medals won by Kathryn Buchan and Geoff King that much sweeter to accept.
Buchan outran East Syracuse-Minoa’s Leah Andrianos in a classic 1,500-meter duel, while King seized the spotlight in the boys’ mile.
Just a sophomore, Buchan is already well-decorated, thanks to her contributions to the F-M cross country team’s state, Federation and national titles won last fall.
Now, on her own, Buchan added another prize. The 1,500 final quickly turned into a two-way battle as Buchan and Andrianos steadily pulled away from the rest of the field.
As they came down the homestretch, the Section III teammates were nearly step-for-step. Buchan was a bit faster, though, and at the line, she recorded a time of 4:37.62, just ahead of Andrianos, who finished in 4:37.73.
Over on the boys side, King got a chance to step out of the long shadow of fellow senior Tommy Gruenewald, whose late-season illness kept him from going after state indoor titles.
For much of the 1,600-meter final, King maintained a steady pace, but stayed behind Shenendehowa’s Steve Murdock, a familiar rival from the cross country ranks.
With one lap to go, King was 30 meters behind Murdock, but quickly picked up ground after the bell. In the middle of the last stretch, King passed Murdock and hit the tape at 4:16.35, beating Murdock (4:17.06) and going to the top of the medal podium.
F-M earned another medal in the 55-meter dash, where Jamal Johnson finished third in a time of 6.56 seconds as Spenser Carter (Fairport) won in 6.37 seconds.
In the girls 4×800 relay, Buchan teamed with Hilary Hooley, Molly Malone and Jessica Hauser to finish sixth in a time of 9:43.15. Kathryn Fanning helped Section III’s medley relay finish seventh, in 10:52.82.
Jenny Devaney was 18th in the 1,500 race walk (10:31.11). Hannah Luber finished 11th in the 3,000-meter run (10:33.11) as teammate Mackenzie Carter settled for 23rd place (11:19.53). Hooley was 24th in the 1,000-meter run in 3:12.15.
