In just three days, the Fayetteville-Manlius track and field teams accomplished plenty, both outside and inside the Central New York area.
It all began Thursday, at the prestigious Penn Relays in Philadelphia. F-M’s girls sent its 4×800 relay team of Heather Martin, Katie Brislin, Katie Sischo and Jillian Fanning to take on top national competition.
But it wasn’t even close. Brislin posted the fastest 800-meter split (2:12.4) of the entire day. Combined with Sischo’s 2:15.8, Fanning’s 2:17.4 and Martin’s 2:18.6, it translated into a winning time of nine minutes, 4.21 seconds that beat the runner-up by more than 13 seconds.
Quickly, the Hornets dashed home for Saturday’s Chittenango Invitational, where it won the girls division with 145 points, nearly double the total of runner-up Cazenovia (85 points), with Jamesville-DeWitt third as it got 72 points.
Brislin and Martin joined Hannah Smith and Natalie Zazzara as F-M got a top time of 4:08.23 in the 4×400 relay. Four others – Emily McGurrin, Annika Avery, Olivia Ryan and Mary Barger – took their turn in the 4×800 and won in 9:46 flat, more than 45 seconds clear of the field.
On an individual basis, Brislin won the 800-meter run in 2:19.72, with Smith (2:23.81) in second. Sischo, in a rare mile run (usually the girls go 1,500 meters), posted 5:08.55 as she and Fanning (5:10.32) got another 1-2 finish.
Martin held off Baldwinsville’s CIerra Allen, 59.30 seconds to 59.84, to win the 400-meter dash as Zazzara (1:00.84) took third. Christie Rutledge, in the 3,000-meter run, tore to victory in 10:03.30, leaving teammate Michelle Duffy 27 seconds behind in the runner-up spot.
In the 2,000-meter steeplechase, F-M’s Alana Pearl took the title in 7:20.66, nearly 14 seconds clear of Westhill/Bishop Ludden’s Betsy Black, with Maggie Malone fourth in 7:36.38. Hanna Lee, Sarah Olick-Sutphen, Jordan Noble and Christine Lavoie were third in the 4×100 relay in 53.50 seconds.
F-M even picked up a field event, as Christabel Ezidiegwu won the triple jump with a top leap of 32 feet 9 ½ inches. Savannah Pidkaminy took third in the pole vault, clearing 7 feet 6 inches, and added a third (85’5”) in the shot put.
Anna Castro took fourth in the high jump, clearing 4’10”. Caitlin Ferro was fourth in the 400 hurdles, with Zazzara and Martin fourth and fifth, respectively, in the 200-meter dash.
Amid all this, J-D did get its fair share of points, especially from those field events. Sierra Vasiliou was second in the shot put (30’ ½”) and Tangela Hightower third (28’9 ½”), adding a third in the long jump with 15’1”.
Maggie Fuller cleared 5’3” in the high jump, but had more misses than Rome Free Academy’s Dana Husband, leaving her in second place. Patrece Martin got third in the triple jump (32’2”) as Danielle Doss, taking a turn in the pentathlon, earned third place with 2,353 points.
Fuller, Ally Fox, Katy Pieri and Liz Pieri were second (4:15.55) to F-M in the 4×400, with Rachel Fairbanks, Hannah Stefl, Laura Wengert and Katie Pinkes third in the 4×800 in 10:35.36. Vasiliou, Fox and the Pieri sisters were fourth in the 4×100 in 53.63 seconds as Fairbanks was fourth in the mile and Liz Pieri took fifth in the 400.
F-M’s boys track team would win its part of the Chittenango meet, picking up 110 points as Liverpool was second (67 points) and, again, J-D settled into third place, earning 48 points.
The Hornets had a clean sweep of the relays, starting with the 4×100, where Sean Bright, Tanner Carter, Ryan Greer and Aaron Blitz finished in 46.13 seconds.
In the 4×400, Blitz, Langston Lightcap, Charlie Beeler and Said Shakuri gained the victory in 3:34.82, and in the 4×800 Connor Farrell, Andrew Berge, Mike Malone and David Benman put the Hornets on top with a time of 8:46.21. J-D was fourth after taking a fifth in the 4×100.
Individually, Nick Ryan won the mile, blazing to a time of 4:14.46, with Bryce Millar (4:28.64) in third. Lightcap claimed the 800 in 2:01.84, where J-D’s Samuel Dye (2:09.97) got third place.
Austin Perez tore to a winning time of 51.04 seconds in the 400 sprint, as Beeler (52.27) was fourth. Beeler also took third in the 400 hurdles (1:01.88) as Colin Fitzgibbons (9:42.12) and Ben Thomas (9:42.50) were second and third, respectively, in the 3,200-meter run.
Zhengyue Zu helped F-M, too, as he was second in the long jump, going exactly 19 feet, and second in the triple jump with 40’6”.
J-D’s Zach Liebmann was second in the pole vault, where he cleared 11’6”, but with more misses than Marcellus’ Rob Coon. Will Sterriker went 58.88 seconds in the 400 hurdles, which meant second place behind Liverpool’s Keewan Rondinello (56.82 seconds), and Sterriker added a fourth in the 110 high hurdles in 16.14 seconds.
Nate Sturgeon gave the Red Rams a third-place pentathlon finish with 2,606 points. Ryan Peters was fourth in the discus (124’6”) and shot put (45’4”), while Dylan Volk took fifth in the triple jump.
