Two familiar figures for the Fayetteville-Manlius boys track and field team provided the main highlights during Wednesday’s Section III Class AA championship meet at Cicero-North Syracuse’s Bragman Stadium.
Alex Hatz continued his domination in the mile. In broiling heat (near 90 degrees), Hatz maintained a steady pace and did not try and go too fast, hitting marks of 1:04.17, 2:07.95 and 3:10.75 on his way to a victory in a time of 4:17.19, nearly four seconds ahead of Liverpool’s Colin Savage.
Meanwhile, Chris Ruggeri took over in the pentathlon. Winning the long jump and taking second in the 110 high hurdles, shot put and high jump, plus fifth in the 1,500-meter run, Ruggeri finished with 2,980 points, topping Utica Proctor’s Karmon Stubbs by 87 points.
Those two wins accounted for nearly half of the Hornets’ total of 42 points, which was seventh in a 12-team field. Proctor, with 110 points, topped Liverpool (99 points) to finish in front.
In the 4×800 relay, Hatz, Paul Merriman, Mark McGurrin and Joe Hartnett finished in 7:52.26, a superb time — but only second behind Liverpool, the defending state champions, who blazed to first in 7:46.90.
Andrew Roache worked his way to second in the 3,200-meter run in 9:39.08, with CNS’s Chris Buchanan (9:30.85) in front. Brendan Farrell took fourth in the 800-meter run in 2:03.63. Ryan Jones was fifth in the 100-meter dash (11.44 seconds).