Most of the area’s high school track and field teams would find some degree of success during Thursday’s Section III state qualifying meet at Cicero-North Syracuse’s Bragman Stadium.
At the same C-NS oval where next week’s state meet takes place, Marcellus earned win on both the boys and girls Division II (small school) sides.
The Mustangs steadily pulled away in the boys Division II 4×800 relay. Justin Garn, John Bell and Joe Fallon built a comfortable lead in front of anchor Ryan Manahan, who got further away as Marcellus finished in 7:58.73, more than 19 seconds ahead of runner-up Tully.
Manahan also advanced in the individual 3,200-meter run, where he finished in 9:26.41, easily the best Division II time ahead of South Jefferson’s Nick Tyler (9:53.40).
Marcellus nearly made it to the state meet in the girls 4×800, too. Abbie Fallon, Mary Morocco and Maggie Dunn set it up for anchor Rachel Garn, who tore down the stretch. The Mustangs finished in a school-record 9:47.57, less than a second from the qualifying standard of 9:46.74.
Garn, already the record-holder in the 2,000-meter steeplechase, was in the state meet, so this race was just a warm-up as she held off South Lewis star Victoria Campanian, 7:26.72 to Campanian’s time of 7:27.69.
And in the 800-meter run, Garn qualified with a clocking of 2:18.30, though it was second to Hamilton’s Sage Hurta (2:17.20). Morocco added a fifth in the 1,500-meter run in 5:13.22, one of her best times of the season.
Meanwhile, in Division I West Genesee’s Nate Potash won again in the 400-meter dash. Potash’s time of 51.23 seconds held off Whitesboro’s Luis Gonzalez (51.70 seconds) and the rest of the field. Also for WG, Abby Uczen tied for the top spot in the pole vault, clearing 9 feet 6 inches, but with fewer misses than C-NS’s Jessica Wheeler.
Brianna Richardson gained second in the Division I triple jump with 34’4”. Nate Conroy was third in the boys 3,000-meter steeplechase in 10:13.79, with Peter Richardson fourth (58.86 seconds) in the 400 hurdles. Kelly Powell took fourth in the girls 400-meter dash in 1:01.76, while Paige Copeland took fifth in the 400 hurdles.
In a close Division I boys shot put, Westhill/Bishop Ludden’s Corey Wilkinson threw it 51 feet ½ inch, edging Liverpool’s Nick Leedom by half an inch. WG’s Dave Martin was fifth, with Wilkinson’s teammate Tre Feisinger in sixth. In the discus, Wilkinson finished fifth.
Westhill-Ludden’s Betsy Black earned second place in the Division I 2,000 steeplechase in 7:17.46, while WG’s Abby Kastick was third in 7:55.04.
Jordan-Elbridge teammates Abby Gugel (7:43.84) and Julia Conlan (7:49.03) were third and fifth, respectively. Courtney Hourigan was sixth in the pentathlon with 1,916 points, while Steve Slonosky was sixth in the boys steeplechase. Rachel Scott got seventh in the 400 hurdles and Brianna Byrnes was eighth in the 800.
Solvay’s Nick Cometti qualified for the state meet in the 100-meter dash, where he was second in Division II in 11.17 seconds as CBA’s Dametrious Brown won in 11.10 seconds. He also advanced in the 200-meter dash, where in 22.79 seconds he was inches behind Clinton’s Jordan Chrobak (22.76 seconds).
It was the same in the4x400 relay as Cometti, Matt Battaglia, Nate Carr and Eric Goodrich were second in 3:30.01 – and CBA won again, in 3:39.24. Brian McLeod was fifth in the high jump, clearing 5 feet 10 inches.
