Honors continued to pour in for Fayetteville-Manlius running star Nick Ryan, just as he and his fellow Hornets were busy getting a second-place finish in Wednesday night’s John Arcaro Memorial Invitational at SRC Arena.
Ryan was named the New York State Runner of the Year for cross country, this after a fall where he won the state Class A championship and the Nike New York State regional titles, breaking course records at famous courses like Elma Meadows and Bowdoin Park in the process.
After a 15th-place finish in the Nike Cross Nationals (where an early fall prevented him from an expected run at the national title), Ryan rested up, and then joined his fellow indoor track Hornets, wasting little time showing his top form.
In the 3,200-meter run, Ryan steadily, relentlessly got away from the field. In a time of nine minutes, 27.10 seconds, he beat the runner-up, Auburn’s Justin Middleton (9:48.84), by more than 21 seconds as Adam Hunt (10:05.03) was fifth.
F-M, overall, finished with 48 points, only trailing Baldwinsville, who prevailed with 60 points. Despite this, the Hornets’ Charlie Beeler beat the Bees’ Andy Fleming, 1:27.81 to 1:28.44, in the 600-meter run.
Also, the Hornets were second in the 4×800 relay as Colin Fitzgibbons, Connor Farrell, David Benman and Hamza Elhabbal posted a time of 8:46.91 behind Jordan-Elbridge’s winning 8:40.51.
On his own, Bryce Millar took second in the mile in 4:28.71, dropping a close race as Mexico’s James Gowans won in 4:28 flat. Kyle Barber rose to fourth in the 55-meter hurdles in 8.69 seconds.
Jamesville-DeWitt got most of its points from a victory in the 4×400 relay, where Zach Liebmann, Nate Sturgeon, Austin Phileo and Jaysen Ramos roared to a time of 3:38.81, nearly eight seconds ahead of runner-up Cicero-North Syracuse (3:46.68) as F-M (3:50.69) was fourth.
J-D’s Taumeras Howard was fifth in the high jump, clearing 5 feet 6 inchces, and sixth in the 55-meter dash, while the Red Rams also saw Jordan Franklin, Will Cote, Mike Montanez and Jaquan Tearney get fifth place (1:42.34) in the 4×200 relay.
CBA’s Connor Agnew earned third place in the shot put with a heave of 42’9”, while East Syracuse-Minoa logged its only points in the pole vault, Corey Vollmer earning third place when he cleared 11 feet.
All of the area’s girls indoor track teams would have to wait until Jan. 3 for its portion of the John Arcaro Invitational, but both boys and girls athletes are going to SRC Arena this Thursday for the Oscar Jensen Holiday Relays.
