Whether it was the boys New Hartford Invitational on Friday or the girls Rome Invitational on Saturday, Marcellus track and field stars Ryan Manahan and Rachel Garn both found their way to the forefront with impressive, season-best victories in their specialties.
It started Friday with Manahan competing in the 3,200-meter run in New Hartford. Blowing away the field, Manahan finished in nine minutes, 15.74 seconds, the best clocking in Section III this spring, as he beat Liverpool’s Nick LeClair (9:57.44) by nearly 42 seconds.
At Rome Free Academy Stadium on Saturday, Garn was the featured performer in the 800-meter run, going to the top of the sectional leaderboard as she won in 2:14.99. upending the previous leader, Baldwinsville’s Mackenzie Ross, who was second in 2:17.40.
As if that wasn’t enough, Garn also won the 1,500-meter run, topping another B’ville star, Rachael Miller, with a time of 4:52.01 to Miller’s 4:55.09. Garn accounted for all of the Mustangs’ 20 points in the meet, which tied for 10th place.
West Genesee had 34 points, earning seventh place as Abby Uczen, eight days removed from a victory in the April 26 Chittenango Invitational, prevailed again in the pole vault, clearing 9 feet 6 inches as no one else could top 9 feet.
In the 4×400 relay, the Wildcats prevailed as Laura Leff, Melissa Bakowski, Emily Iles and Tianna DeChick-Perrine finished in 4:12.25, nearly five seconds better than runner-up Bethlehem (4:17.19). WG also was third in the 4×800 relay in 10:29.07.
Brianna Richardson picked up 2,392 points and claimed third place in the pentathlon, as Leff was sixth in the 800-meter run and Emily Frazee was sixth in the long jump. Valerie Pirro took seventh in the 400 hurdles.
Back at the New Hartford meet, WG’s boys team did a bit better, with 36 points for seventh place in a 26-team field headed by Cicero-North Syracuse, who won with 94.5 points.
The Wildcats’ Pete Richardson again tore it up in the 400-meter hurdles, hitting the line in 57.12 seconds, half a second better than C-NS’s Pete Girardi (57.62) to claim first place. Marcellus’ Justin Garn was seventh.
WG’s other victory came in the shot put, where David Martin, with a throw of 49 feet 9 ½ inches, had enough to hold off Rome Free Academy’s Robert Alder (48’11 ½”) and prevent Alder from a throwing sweep, as he had already won the discus.
During the 800-meter run, Jack Erhard finished second, in 2:00.12, to Liverpool’s Alex Christensen (1:57.52), while Erhard’s teammate, Logan McAnulty, was fourth in 2:02.24.
Kal Strickland took fifth place (4:38.57) in the mile, while Marcellus’ Matt Raymond landed in fifth place in the discus with a throw of 129’11”.
As that went on, Jordan-Elbridge’s boys team went to the CBA Brother Basilian Invitational, where Jack Gugel took second in the mile, just edged out at the wire by Sauquoit Valley’s Nick Spina, who won with 4:36.6 to Gugel’s 4:37 flat. Dylan Whittico was fourth in the 100-meter dash (11.3 seconds) and 200-meter dash (23.6 seconds), while Justin Quinn was sixth (107’2”) in the discus.
In Rome a day later, J-E’s girls ended up with seven points, most of them from the 1,600 sprint medley as Julie Hines, Brianna Byrnes, Mary Elizabeth Dristle and Emily Weichert took third place in 4:31.11. On her own, Hines was sixth in the 200-meter dash in 27.38 seconds.
