What was true late in 2013 remained true at the outset in 2014 – it’s difficult for any local girls indoor track and field team to catch Fayetteville-Manlius.
Led by Chrisatbel Ediziegwu’s trio of top-three finishes, the Hornets again went to the top of the standings during Wednesday night’s George Constantino Memorial Invitational at SRC Arena.
F-M, overall, picked up 81.6 points, with West Genesee rising up to second place as it earned 51 points. Further back, East Syracuse-Minoa, with 22 points, finished seventh, with CBA (17 points) sliding into 10th place ahead of Jamesville-DeWitt (14 points).
Ediziegwu’s victory came in the triple jump, where her top effort of 35 feet 8 1/4 inches was more than a foot better than J-D’s Patrece Martin, who was second with 34’7″.
Then, in the high jump, Ediziegwu could not quite catch ESM’s Nina Zesky, who again finished on top as she cleared 5 feet 4 inches, but Ediziegwu (5’3″) was an inch behind in the runner-up spot, good for eight more points, while teammate Anna Castro (5 feet) earned fourth place.
Finally, in the 55-meter hurdles, Ediziegwu made her way to third place with a time of 9.37 seconds, setting the tone for what F-M’s other runners would accomplish on the Onondaga Community College oval.
F-M beat the field in the 4×400 relay as the quartet of Anna Perrotti, Natalie Zazzara, Mikayla Ruthig and Megan Menz finished in 4:25.19, less than two seconds clear of runner-up Skaneateles (4:27.02).
During the 3,000-meter run, the Hornets earned 14 points, seeing Alana Pearl finish second in 10:32.72 and Annika Avery get third place in 10:47.16 behind West Genesee’s Laura Leff, who won in 10:17.01. J-D’s Hannah Butler was fifth in 10:57.43, with CBA’s Megan Ann Pierce (10:59.89) in sixth place.
Fourteen more points were attained in the 600-meter run, where Olivia Ryan, in 1:42.84, prevailed over Jordan-Elbridge’s Abby Gugel (1:44.38) as Sophia Ryan grabbed fourth place in 1:45.72 and J-D’s Elena Harter was fifth (1:45.72), ahead of Laura Wengert in seventh place. Wengert did take sixth place in the 1,000-meter run.
Also for F-M, Jenna Farrell, in 4:55.79, was second to Marcellus’ Rachel Garn (4:53.40) in the 1,500-meter run, while ESM’s Natalie Marra took fourth place in 5:05.60 and the Hornets’ Jessica Howe (5:10.79) was sixth.
CBA got a big effort from Anna Schug, who nearly won the 55-meter dash, her time of 7.605 seconds less than an inch behind Fowler’s Nytasia Survia, who won with 7.604 seconds, a difference of one-thousandth of a second.
In the 300-meter dash, Schug again was second, her time of 42.82 seconds trailing only Liverpool’s Ore Akinpelu, who won in 41.35 seconds. Perrotti (44.58 seconds) gained fifth place as the Hornets’ Sophia Wojnovich, clearing 7 feet, tied for sixth in the pole vault.
Aside from Zesky, ESM’s points came largely from the 4×800 relay, where Juliette Miller, Brittany Kubecka, Nataile Marra and Gabby Pallotta finished in 10:33.31 and earned second place behind Liverpool’s top time of 10:25.47. J-D finished eighth.
F-M’s Chantel Brennan was seventh in the 55 sprint, but she teamed with Natalie Zazzara, Nicole Amico and Mikayla Ruthig to finish fourth in the 4×200 relay in 1:54.87. For J-D, Tangela Hightower got sixth place in the shot put with a toss of 30’8 3/4″.
