What started with Nick Ryan and Katie Brislin spread to their teammates as Fayetteville-Manlius swept both sides of last Friday night’s Chittenango Invitational.
In the girls meet, the Hornets had 128 points, nearly double the total of runner-up Liverpool (66 points), while the F-M boys got 107.5 points as, again, it was Liverpool (75 points) settling for the second spot.
The Fleet Feet Mile races attracted the most attention. Ryan would win the boys event, his time of four minutes, 11.67 seconds turning back Marcellus star Ryan Manahan (4:17.62) and a field that included Bryce Millar in fifth and Connor Farrell in sixth place.
Meanwhile, the girls Fleet Feet Mile would prove a showcase for Brislin, the only girl to break five minutes as she prevailed in 4:58.92, well clear of a field that included teammate Hannah Smith, who was second in 5:13.86.
Brislin also teamed with Mary Barger, Jillian Fanning and Jessica Howe as F-M rolled to first place in the 4×800 relay in 9:40.10, the only sub-10-minute clocking. The Hornets went 1-2 in the 3,000-meter run as Alana Pearl won in 10:05.73 and Jenna Farrell took second in 10:48.05.
Christabel Ezidiegwu gave the Hornets 14 points, winning the triple jump as she went 34 feet 6 ¼ inches, with Liverpool’s Alexus Gersbancher (33’9”) second.
Also, Edziegwu was fourth in the 100 hurdles (17.47 seconds), just ahead of Caitlin Ferro in fifth place, and added a seventh in the high jump. Savanna Pidkaminy was fourth in the discus, going 92 feet 9 inches, and tied for fifth in the pole vault.
Maggie Malone got second place in the 2,000-meter steeplechase in 7:46.42, with Annika Avery (7:49.71) third. Barger took second (2:22.48) in the 800-meter run as Howe was fifth. Anna Castro was third in the pentathlon with 2,214 points, with Caitlin Ferro third in the 400 hurdles (1:11.99) and Ryan fourth (1:01.29) in the 400-meter dash.
Natalie Zazzara, Anna Perrotti, Jordan Noble and Sarah Olick-Sutphen got second place (51.74 seconds), just behind Utica Proctor (51.40 seconds), in the 4×100 relay, with Perrotti, Zazzara, Olivia Ryan and Christine Lavoie second (4:14.37) to Liverpool (4:10.48) in the 4×400. Zazzara, on her own, raced to fourth in the 200-meter dash.
Moving to the boys meet, the Hornets’ Charlie Beeler was victorious in the 800, holding off Rome Free Academy’s Erik Winberg, 1:57.03 to 1:57.77, along with Liverpool’s Alex Christensen (1:57.85) in third place.
Andrew Berge added a title in the 3,200-meter run in a dramatic battle where, in a clocking of 9:44.85, he held off Liverpool’s Ben Petrella (9:44.93) by eight-hundredths of a second, while Adam Hunt (9:46.66) finished third.
Ryan, Millar, Farrell and Josh Hannon dominated the 4×800, finishing in 8:23.74, nearly 20 seconds better than runner-up Liverpool. That spread to the 4×400, where Beeler, Kyle Barber, Austin Perez and Ed Cheatham finished in 3:34.55 to win that event over Jordan-Elbridge (3:37.63) and the field.
On his own, Barber went to the top in the 400 hurdles, his time of 58.17 seconds the only one under a minute as he beat the field by nearly four seconds, adding to a fourth in both the 110 high hurdles and triple jump.
Riley Hughes made his way to second place in the 3,000-meter steeplechase in 10:18.26. In the 4×100, Jake Wittig, Parker Noble, Ryan Greer and Zaire Ashley took third place in 45.65 seconds.
Kyle Harbour matched Castro with a third-place pentathlon, Harbour gathering up 2,450 points. Austin Perez took fifth in the 400 sprint in 52.98 seconds. Zhengyue Zhu was third in the triple jump (39’2”) and Tanner Carter tied for sixth in the pole vault.
Before going to Chittenango, the Hornets first swept through last Wednesday’s CNY Counties League American division meet against Oswego. The boys meet was closer, F-M prevailing 98-43 despite four wins from Oswego’s Cory Keefe, who took the 110 high hurdles (15.3 seconds), 100-meter dash (11.4 seconds), 200-meter dash (23.4 seconds) and long jump (21’10”) for his side.
F-M dominated everything else, though, as Ryan went 1:59.4 in the 800 to beat Farrell (2:03.3) and Millar (2:03.5) and Adam Hunt took the 3,200 in 10:11 flat. Ryan, Millar, Josh Hannan and Hamza Elhabbal went 9:16.5 in the 4×800.
Beeler was first in the 400 sprint in 53.5 seconds, while Barber took the 400 hurdles in 1:00.1. Barber managed to match Zhu in the triple jump, both going 41’1”.
Beeler, Barber, Cheatham and Perez ran the 4×400 in 3:50.1 as Perez joined Wittig, Noble and Ashley in the 4×100 (45.4 seconds). Justin Jones cleared 9’6” in the pole vault for another F-M title.
F-M’s girls routed Oswego 121-9, winning every single event. Ferro was first in the 100-meter hurdles (18.2 seconds) and 400 hurdles (1:13.4), while Jessica Puro threw the shot put 29’2 ½” and the discus 77’5” to sweep those titles.
Castro, in the high jump, cleared 4’10” and also earned first place in the long jump with 15’7 ½”, this after Ezidiegwu went 31’3 ½” in the triple jump. Abby Konys topped 7 feet in the pole vault. On the track, titles went to Perrotti (100), Olick-Sutphen (200), Ryan (400), Brislin (800), Pearl (1,500) and Smith (3,000).
The Hornets also swept the 4×100 (52.8 seconds), 4×400 (4:29.9) and 4×800 (10:53.4) relays as Brislin, Perotti, Olick-Sutphen, Ryan, Ferro, Lavoie, Fanning, Malone, Farrell, Zazzara and Mia Blatt took part.
