Amid another busy weekend of indoor track activity, West Genesee sophomore Laura Leff again drew the most notice.
During Saturday’s New Balance Games at the Armory in New York City, Leff set a new Section III record in the 1,600-meter run and posted the second-fastest mile a sophomore has ever run in the state.
On a weekly basis, girls indoor track runners in Section III typically run at 1,500 meters, slightly shorter than the mile, but that slight difference in distance meant little to Leff’s record quest in the Invitational One-Mile Run at the Armory.
In a tight race to the finish, Leff, in four minutes, 48.96 seconds, edged Cosby’s Megan Moye (4:49.36) by exactly four-tenths of a second. Only Saratoga’s Nicole Blood (4:46.13) has ever run a faster indoor mile as a 10th-grader in New York state.
A day earlier, other area indoor athletes were back at Onondaga Community College’s SRC Arena for the Fred Kirschenheiter Memorial Invitational.
Westhill/Bishop Ludden, with 16 points, tied for ninth place among boys teams. Every single point came from the shot put, where Corey Wilkinson won with a toss of 47 feet and teammate Tre Feisner was third, heaving it 41 feet 6 1/4 inches.
Marcellus finished with 12 points as Rob Coon took second in the pole vault as he cleared 12 feet, with Cicero-North Syracuse’s Mike Hyde (14 feet 3 inches) in the top spot. Joe Fallon was fourth in the 1,000-meter run in 2:43.98.
WG’s Martin Leff rose to second place in the 3,200-meter run in 9:48.63, trailing only Fayetteville-Manlius star Nick Ryan, who won in 9:25.67, while Peter James tied for fifth (10 feet) behind Coon in the pole vault. Solvay’s John Salvagno took sixth (8.36 seconds) in the 55-meter hurdles.
In the girls Kirschenheiter meet, Westhill/Ludden had 10.5 points. Jessica Curry, Emily Washburn, Annibel Coolican and Molly Clark earned second in the 4×800 relay in a clocking of 10:31.75 as F-M prevailed in 9:54.92. Emily Mizer got to fifth (1:45.27) in the 600-meter run.
With 15 points, West Genesee earned ninth place. Emily Iles finished third in the 55-meter hurdles in 10.22 seconds, her best finish of the season. Kelly Powell took fourth in the 600-meter run (1:44.96), just ahead of Mizer, while Abby Kastick was fifth (11:08.68) in the 3,000-meter run. Solvay’s Kyndra Jackson had a fifth-place shot put toss of 28 feet 11 1/2 inches.
Now the teams are off until Jan. 30, when the girls CNY Counties League and OHSL championships take place at SRC Arena, two days before the boys have their league meet.
