Whatever way they got there, for the Fayetteville-Manlius boys and girls indoor track and field teams, the destination ended up the same – a Section III Class AA championship.
Both titles were earned in Tuesday night’s sectional meet at SRC Arena, where the boys Hornets got away from hard-charging Liverpool and the girls nearly doubled the total of runner-up West Genesee.
On its way to 142 points as the Wildcats (75 points) finished second, the F-M girls went 1-2-3 in the 1,000-meter run for 24 of those points as Annika Avery won in 3:00.28, getting past Alana Pearl (3:04.83) and Jessica Howe (3:05.49) in the second and third spots.
Avery wasn’t done, either, going to the 600-meter run and, in 1:36.21, beating out Olivia Ryan, who was second in 1:39.10. To finish her day, Avery, joining Howe, Jenna Farrell and Sophia Ryan, helped the Hornets win the 4×800 relay in 9:50.58, with WG second in 9:55.56.
Though WG’s Laura Leff won both the 3,000 and 1,500-meter events, F-M filled up the spots behind her. In the 3,000, Farrell was second (10:31.30) and Pearl third (10:33.27), with Samantha Levy fifth and Reilly Madsen sixth. Pearl needed 4:51.08 to finish second behind Leff (4:48.36) in the 1,500, with Farrell in third place (4:58.89) and Sophia Ryan fourth in 4:59 flat, ahead of Levy in sixth place.
Elsewhere, Anna Perrotti, Nicole Amico, Natalie Zazzara and Chantal Brennan were second (1:50.98) to Baldwinsville (1:49.17) in the 4×200 relay, with Mikayla Ruthig and Olivia Ryan joining Zazzara and Perrotti in the 4×400 as, again, the Hornets, in 4:09.50, finished second to B’ville, who won in 4:05.58.
Christobel Ezidigewu, with a best leap of 34 feet 7 3/4 inches, earned second place, just behind WG’s Brianna Richardson (34’10”), in the triple jump. Also, Ezidiegwu went 15’10 3/4″ to get third place in the long jump and needed 9.46 seconds to finish fourth in the 55-meter hurdles.
Anna Castro, clearing 5 feet, earned third place in the high jump. Zazzara (43.75 seconds) and Perrotti (44.08 seconds) were fourth and fifth, respectively, in the 300-meter dash as Brennan took fifth in the 55-meter dash in 7.75 seconds. Sophia Wojnowich took fourth in the pole vault, clearing 7’6″, with Abby Konys (7 feet) in fifth place.
Meanwhile, in the boys sectional AA meet, every bit of F-M’s presence in distance running was needed, starting in the 3,200-meter run, where it earned 22 points. Peter Ryan won the race in 9:29.36, with Bryce Millar second in 9:34.15 and Adam Hunt (9:51.24) fourth. Riley Hughes finished seventh.
Another 1-2 finish in the 1,000, where Millar won in 2:35.39 and Andrew Berge’ nearly went step-for-step with him, grabbing second place in 2:35.91. Berge’ also was second in the 600 in 1:26.58, this time trailing Kyle Barber, who tore to the top spot in 1:24.47.
To complete this tear through the distance events, Millar won the mile, earning a time of 4:29.83 as Ryan Made his way to second place in 4:32.28 and Berge’ finished third in 4:32.71.
F-M also gained a victory in the boys pole vault, thanks to Justin Jones, who cleared 11 feet 3 inches to edge Cicero-North Syrause’s Tate LaPorte, who was second as he cleared 11 feet.
Ryan joined Josh Hannan, Hamza ElHabbal and Jon Abbott as F-M finished second in the 4×800 in 8:24.06, just behind West Genesee’s top time of 8:20.35. ElHabbal, Ed Cheathen, Luke Jordan and Parker Noble finished fourth in the 4×200 (1:38.81), with Cheathen, ElHabbal, Abbott and Noble getting fourth (3:39.84) in the 4×400.
Kyle Harbour gained fifth place in the 55 hurdles in 9.01 seconds, with Cheathen (9.22 seconds) in sixth place. Kyle Bronson, in the shot put, earned fifth place as he threw 43’9 3/4″, with Noble fifth in the long jump with a leap of 19’1 1/2″.
