By the tiniest margin possible, Skaneateles senior Khiary Gale missed on prevailing in the triple jump during Wednesday night’s Section III indoor track and field state qualifying meet at SRC Arena.
Quickly, the triple jump developed into a duel between Gale and Oneida’s Jimmy Moyer, who had already prevailed in the long jump.
When it was all done, Gale had gone 44 feet 11 ¾ inches, while Moyer had put up a best attempt of exactly 45 feet, meaning that Gale had finished second by a quarter of an inch.
That was the best finish for the boys Lakers in the state qualifier. Malik Merritt ran his qualifying heat in the 55-meter dash in 6.86 seconds, but was unable to advance to the finals. Taylor Weyneth did the same in the 55-meter hurdles, where his qualifying time of 8.57 seconds missed the cut.
Meanwhile, in the girls state qualifier, Kaela Fiutak would beat most of the field in the pole vault. However, her top clearance of 9 feet was not enough as Jamesville-DeWitt’s Danielle Doss prevailed by clearing 9 feet 6 inches.
Skaneateles led all small schools in the 4×400 relay. The quartet of Emma Ford, Erin Tonzi, Taylor Woodruff and Anna Barnett finished in 4:06.71, second overall as Fayetteville-Manlius, with a winning time of 3:57.71, broke a sectional record Rome Free Academy set in 2008 by more than five seconds.
Individually, Ford had a strong showing in the 300-meter dash, taking third place in 41.77 seconds as Cazenovia’s Ashley Winn won in 41.04 seconds. Madeline Adams matched that third-place finishin the 1,500-meter run with a clocking of 5:00.76. Tonzi was sixth in the triple jump, going 33 feet 2 ½ inches.
Gale, Fiutak, Ford and Adams have all earned spots in this Saturday’s state championship meet, which starts at 9 a.m. at Cornell University’s Barton Hall.
