Everything this season pointed toward Skaneateles senior Khiary Gayle earning the top prize at this weekend’s state track and field championship meet at Cicero-North Syracuse’s Bragman Stadium.
Gayle entered the Division II (small school) triple jump as the top seed, having gone exactly 47 feet in the sectional state qualifier at C-NS just eight days before the state finals.
Here, Gayle would struggle a bit more, and his best leap covered 46 feet 6 ¼ inches. That beat every one in Division II except Albany Academy’s Jelani Currie, who had a top leap of 48 feet 6 inches to put away the field, nearly two feet ahead of Gayle.
A day later, in the Federation portion of the triple jump, Gayle could only manage 44’ 6 ½”, which put him in fifth place. Currie also fell back, to 47’2 ½”, but still prevailed.
That was just part of the Lakers’ efforts during the state meet, which included state title bids by Kaela Fiutak and Madeline Adams, plus a run in the girls 4×400 relay.
Fiutak also entered as a top seed, having cleared 10’9”, by far the best Section III effort in the state qualifier. Here, though, Fiutak could not get past 10 feet, which left her tied for seventh in Division II. Red Hook’s Grace Weisbecker cleared 11’3” to win the state Division title.
As for Adams, she capped her sophomore season with a strong effort in Friday night’s 3,000-meter run. Adams finished fifth in her heat in a time of 10 minutes, 27.51 seconds, and that put her in seventh place among Division II runners and 15th overall. Kristiane Width (UN School) earned first in Division II with a clocking of 9:57.77.
To cap it off, in the girls Division II 4×400 relay, seniors Erin Tonzi and Courtney Pitman, joined by sophomores Taylor Woodruff and Anna Barnett, put up a strong time of 4:12.03 and finished 10th in the division. Bayport-Bluepoint earned first place in 3:58.52, the only sub-four minute effort among the small-school entrants.
