Even the area’s track and field teams were not immune to weather issues, with Jamesville-DeWitt seeing last Wednesday’s three-way meet with Fulton and Chittenango postponed because snow still covered the Red Raiders’ home track.
But Fayetteville-Manlius did fit in its match with Liverpool on Thursday at LHS Stadium after a 24-hour delay, and improved to 2-0 on both sides, the boys pulling out a 72-69 classic and the girls Hornets handling the Warriors 95-46.
A key to the boys meet was a near-sweep of the races on the oval. Bryce Millar set the pace, winning the mile in exactly four minutes, 28 seconds and dipping under two minutes (1:59.9, to be exact) in the 800-meter run.
Kyle Barber also won twice, going through the 400-meter dash in 52.1 seconds and 400 hurdles in 1:01.4, while Parker Noble won the 200-meter dash in 24.3 seconds and Ed Cheatham was victorious in the 110 high hurdles in 18.8 seconds.
Noble ran a leg in F-M’s winning 4×100 relay side, which got the title in 47.1 seconds, while Barber and Cheatham joined Hamza ElHabbal and Jules Ngadula in the 4×400 relay, where the Hornets got first place in 3:34.6.
Justin Jones gave the Hornets its lone victory in a field event, clearing 11 feet in the pole vault. Liverpool, in defeat, saw Mark Vanmarter sweep through the long jump (20’6”), high jump (6’2”) and triple jump (40’10”) to keep things close.
Though another Liverpool star, Ore Akinpelu, won four times in the girls meet – in the 100 (13.3 seconds), 200 (26.3 seconds), 400 sprint (59.5 seconds) and 400 hurdles (1:09.6) – F-M would win everywhere else to make up for it.
Christabel Ezidiegwu went 17.2 seconds in the 100 hurdles to finish first. Two more victories would follow, as Ezidiegwu cleared 5’2” to win the high jump and and had a top triple jump of 35’9”.
Annika Avery went 4:54 flat in the 1,500-meter run and also took the 800 in 2:23.3 before Jenna Farrell won the 3,000-meter run in 10:36.2. Avery, Farrell, Jessica Howe and Alana Pearl covered the 4×800 relay in 10:22.0 to win that event.
Nicole Amico, Natalie Zazzara, Chantal Brennan and Sarah Olick-Sutphen took first in the 4×100 in 52.3 seconds as Howe and Olivia Ryan helped F-M complete a relay sweep by taking the 4×400 in 4:16 flat. Anna Castro went 13’6 ½” in the long jump and Savannah Pidkaminy cleared 8 feet for a victory in the pole vault.
This followed Christian Brothers Academy’s appearance in the April 11 Jordan-Elbridge Relay Invitational, where it had plenty of top performances.
Among them was the girls 800-meter sprint medley, where CBA, anchored by sprint star Anna Schug, prevailed in a time of one minute, 51.2 seconds, beating South Jefferson (1:53.7) by 2.5 seconds. On her own, Schug was victorious in the 100-meter dash in 12.2 seconds.
Connor Agnew gave the boys Brothers a pair of strong efforts, winning the shot put with a top throw of 45 feet 4 inches, more than four feet ahead of the field, and adding a second-place finish in the discus by throwing it 104’8”.
CBA’s girls also finished third in the sprint medley relay in 5:05.0, with the boys side matching that third-place effort as it got through the 1,600 meters in 3:48.0 and added a third-place effort in the 800-meter sprint medley (1:41.7) and a sixth-place finish in the distance medley.
