As the centerpiece of Saturday’s Chittenango Invitational, a slew of the top track and field distance runners, boys and girls alike, would battle with each other in the Fleet Feet Mile.
And when it all was done, Fayetteville-Manlius had a sweep, with Alex Hatz taking the boys title and Courtney Chapman the girls title.
With wind and 85-degree heat, Hatz, who has gone as fast as 4:05.50 indoors, could not maintain a torrid early pace (he was 2:01 midway through the race) as, in the second half, he steadily got away from Liverpool’s Zavon Watkins.
Hatz won in 4:11.51, with Watkins second in 4:19.33.
Hornet teammates Paul Merriman (4:26.62) and Mark McGurrin (4:30.25) were fourth and fifth, respectively.
Meanwhile, in the girls mile, Chapman went to the lead right away. Though Pittsford Mendon’s Shaylyn Tutle stayed close all the way through, Chapman still prevailed in a time of 4:54.10 to Tutle’s total of 4:56.19. Katie Sischo was fifth (5:15.73) and Mackenzie Carter sixth (5:17.07).
Overall, the F-M girls team picked up 73 points at Chittenango, third behind Cicero-North Syracuse (114 points) and Jamesville-DeWitt (89 points). The boys Hornets also were third, with 66 points, behind Watertown (89 points) and Liverpool (79 points).
Molly Malone, Kathryn Fanning, Heather Martin and Jillian Fanning worked together to win the girls distance medley relay in 12:16.75, nearly half a minute ahead of the field, and the B squad of Maggie Malone, Hannah Luber, Audrey Wallace and Christie Rutledge was second.
In the sprint medley relay, F-M won again as Martin, Kathryn Fanning, Molly Malone and Molly Levy posted a time of 4:19.62 to beat Cazenovia by 1.06 seconds. Levy also was third in the 100-meter dash in 13.18 seconds, while
Hanna Lee was fifth in the 400-meter dash (1:07.48).
Wallace made her own splash by winning the 400-meter hurdles in 1:09.90, 1.68 seconds ahead of West Genesee’s Paige Copeland. Jhoville Pommels was second in the shot put (32 feet 7 1/2 inches), with Jillian Schwab fifth, as Tammy Gould earned fifth in the shot put and Alexa Capozzi took fifth in the triple jump.
Meanwhile, on the boys side, Chris Ruggeri prevailed in the five-event pentathlon. Covering all the disciplines (110 high hurdles, high jump, long jump, shot put, 1,500 meters), Ruggeri earned 2,951 points to beat Chittenango’s Bruce Gondeck (2,830 points) and the rest of the field.
Ryan Jones worked his way to a victory in the 100-meter dash, holding off Liverpool’s Tony Shuler, 11.36 seconds to 11.41. Owen Strong took second place in the 3,000-meter steeplechase in 10:21.45.
F-M also won the distance medley here as Brendan Farrell, Joe Hartnett, Andrew Roache and Andrew Veilleux posted a time of 11:05.63, beating Jordan-Elbridge by more than seven seconds.
Addison Straub was fourth in the 400-meter dash (55.30 seconds) and fifth in the high jump, with the Hornets also fifth in the 1,600 sprint medley (3:53.19). Vinny Nguyen took sixth in the discus with a toss of 110 feet 11 inches.
