By virtue of its total domination of distance running, and enough strength in other places, the Fayetteville-Manlius girls indoor track and field team lay claim to the Section III Class AA championship Monday night at Manley Field House.
Having not won a meet all winter, the Hornets picked a good time to go to the front, accumulating 105 points to outlast Liverpool and Cicero-North Syracuse, who had dominated most of the indoor season but here tied for second place with 88 points.
F-M won two relays as the foundation for its victory. In the 4×400, Shannon McHugh, Jessica Marini, Kathryn Fanning and Mackenzie Carter combined to post a time of 4:06.70 that beat runner-up West Genesee by more than 13 seconds.
And in the 4×800, the Hornets ruled again as Carter and Fanning joined Jocelyn Richards and Kristen Buchan to earn a time of 9:44.48, the only team to break 10 minutes in that event in any of the classes.
Three times, F-M went 1-2 in distance events, amounting to 54 points, more than half the Hornets’ eventual total.
Hannah Luber took charge, winning the 3,000-meter run in 10:00.60 as Richards (10:02.73) fit into second place. Luber would also place second in the 1,500-meter run in 4:54.42 right behind Courtney Chapman, who won in 4:54.04.
Molly Malone emerged in the 600-meter run, taking that title in a clocking of 1:39.88 with Richards again fitting into the runner-up spot in 1:42.04. Adding to that, Malone also prevailed in the 1,000-meter run in 2:59.37 as Chapman (3:04.01) claimed fourth place.
F-M also earned 17 other points in the meet. Marini got third place in the 300-meter dash in 43.07 seconds. Alex Seabury got fourth place in the long jump, going 16 feet 4 1/2 inches, and helped Marini, McHugh and Lauren Ruggiero run to third place (1:52.83) in the 4×200 relay.
Not that Liverpool and CNS didn’t have their fair amount of highlights, either.
Twice, the Warriors prevailed, as Wanetta Rodney took the 55-meter dash in 7.34 seconds and Janeeka Benson beat the field in the 55-meter hurdles in 8.79 seconds.
Emily Coldren was fifth (9.63 seconds) in the 55-meter hurdles and sixth (7.75 seconds) in the 55-meter dash, as Benson earned fourth place in the 300-meter dash in 43.21 seconds, an event where RFA teammates Kaleigh McKinney (42.10 seconds) and Jessica Razy (42.62 seconds) went 1-2.
Amid all the F-M domination of distance events, Trina Bills did come close to winning the 1,000-meter run, battling Malone to the finish line as Bills finished in a time of 2:59.62, just behind Malone (2:59.37), who prevailed. Brigid Heenan sneaked into fourth place (11:10.18) in the 3,000-meter run.
Competing in the 4×200 relay, Rodney, Nikki Liadka, Skye Borasky and Armani Moore finished second, in 1:52.47, as Baldwinsville (1:51.26) went to the top.
Borasky joined Jennifer VanderMeulen, Hannah Anthes and Ashley Warren for a third (4:21.58) in the 4×400 relay as Miranda McConnell, Naomi Bloomingdale, Melissa Riehl and Rachel Putman got a third-place clocking of 10:19.84 in the 4×800 relay.
In field events, the RFA/Proctor invasion really cut into Liverpool’s point total. For example, in the pole vault, Sara Rothenberg had to take second place (8 feet 6 inches) and Emily Chen fourth place (7 feet 6 inches) as RFA’s Kelly Benfey, the Section III record-holder, won by clearing 10 feet 6 inches.
Rodney took third place in the long jump (16 feet 8 1/4 inches), where Proctor freshman Geonnitta McClain (17 feet 1 inch) won. Jennifer Mackenzie got third in the high jump, clearing 5 feet 1 inch, as Coldren was fifth in the triple jump (33 feet 2 inches) and Jenn Culp claimed fourth in the shot put with a toss of 32 feet 1/4 inch.
For CNS, Monique Roberts still won the high jump, leading a 1-2 sweep as she cleared 5 feet 4 inches, with Gina Campagna in second (5 feet 2 inches), two inches behind. Roberts also finished fifth in the shot put with a toss of 31 feet 4 inches.
Jasmine Thompson had her victory in the triple jump, going 35 feet 6 1/4 inches as her teammate, McKaye Neumeister, earned third place by going 34 feet 8 1/4 inches.
Over in the 55-meter hurdles, Thompson got second place (8.87 seconds) and Roberts finished third in 9.29 secods. Alana Hotchkiss (15 feet 11 1/4 inches) and Thompson (15 feet 8 1/2 inches) were fifth and sixth, respectively, in the long jump.
Neumeister took third place in the 1,000-meter run (3:00.04) and also helped the Northstars to its best relay finish, a second in the 4×800, joining Lauren Spink, Lauren Slocum and Nicole Campagna for a time of 10:09.81.
Also on the oval, Taylor Wendler ran to a pair of third-place finishes, covering 3,000 meters in 10:56.68 and 1,500 meters in 5:01.17. Spink claimed third place in the 600-meter run in 1:44.81. Hotchkiss, Gina Campagna, Natalie Agosh and Shanara Mack combined to get fifth place (1:54.77) in the 4×200 relay.
All of the boys sectional relays are set for Wednesday night, also at Manley.
