Having seen their male counterparts take a rare defeat on April 24 at Baldwinsville, the Fayetteville-Manlius girls track and field team wanted to avoid a similar fate.
But it didn’t prove easy, as the Hornets endured both heavy rain and a tough, determined opponent in Cicero-North Syracuse Wednesday afternoon to prevail by a 74-67 margin.
Every bit of the Hornets’ depth was needed, especially in the relays, where it swept all three races to counter C-NS’s advantage in individual events.
It started in the 4×800, where Annika Avery, Jessica Howe, Stephanie Levy and Alana Pearl posted a top time of 10:06.3. Avery and Howe, joined by Olivia Ryan and Rachel Bise, claimed the 4×400 relay in 4:22.2, with Sarah Olick-Sutphen, Natalie Zazzara, Nicole Amico and Chantal Brennan winning the 4×100 relay in 53 seconds flat.
Depth helped in other races, too. Pearl went 5:03.8 in the 1,500-meter run, with Avery going 2:24.4 to win the 800-meter run and Levy winning the 3,000-meter run in 11:02.3. Anna Perrotti added a first-place finish in the 400-meter dash in 1:03.4.
Though C-NS won four of five field events, Christabel Ezidiegwu, who won four times against Baldwinsville the week before, managed to take the triple jump with a top attempt of 34 feet 6 inches.
Meanwhile, the F-M boys track team, heavily motivated in the wake of its April 24 defeat at Baldwinsville, did not get beat again, handling its portion of the meet with C-NS and winning by a score of 77-59.
As with the girls, the boys Hornets conceded every field event except the triple jump, Kyle Barber taking the honors by going 38’11” as part of a performance that also included wins in the 400 hurdles in a blazing 56 seconds and the 400 sprint in 53.4 seconds.
Parker Noble claimed the 100 sprint in 11.6 seconds and the 200 in 23.5 seconds. Amid a sweep of distance events, Andrew Berge’ won the 800 in 2:04.5, Bryce Millar took the mile in 4:42.8 and Adam Hunt won the 3,200-meter run in 10:02 flat.
F-M also cleaned up in relays, where Millar, Berge’, Jon Abbott and Hamza Elhabbal ran the 4×800 in 8:49.6. Barber, Abbott, Elhabbal and Jules Ngadula were quick in the 4×400 relay, winning in 3:42.40.
Two days later, the Hornets got two more sweeps when it went to the Chittenango Invitational and claimed both the boys and girls team titles and each of the featured Fleet Feet Mile races, too.
In the boys edition, Millar led a 1-2-3 F-M sweep, winning in 4:19.39 to edge out Berge’, who had 4:19.78, and Barber, who was third in 4:20.64. Meanwhile, in the girls Fleet Feet mile, Avery pulled away to win in 4:55.55, with Pearl second in 4:59.94, Farrell fourth and Howe fifth.
For F-M’s girls, who won with 131 points to Liverpool’s 100.33 points, it saw Pearl, Avery, Howe and Farrell run the 4×800 in 9:34.93 and easily take first place. Samantha Levy, in 10:26.61, won the 3,000, with Mackenzie Pierie (11:26.64) third.
Ryan, Perrotti, Zazzara and Rachel Dise won the 4×400 in 4:07.54, more than five second clear of runner-up Hamilton (4:12.88), with Zazzara, Amico, Olick-Sutphen and Brennan needing 52.50 seconds to handle Baldwinsville (53.41 seconds) and the rest of the 4×100 field.
Edzidiegwu won twice, including the 100 hurdles, where in 16.68 seconds she was well clear of Holland Patent’s Andrea Marfone (17.39 seconds) and the field, and she also had a top triple jump of 35’4 ½” to beat the field by more than a foot.
Ryan went 1:00.76, finishing second to B’ville’s Cierra Allen (59.92 seconds), in the 400 sprint, with Perrotti fourth. Anna Castro got third place in the pentathlon with 2,062 points. Savanna Pidkaminy was third in the pole vault, clearing 8 feet 6 inches, and took fourth in the discus throw.
Moving to the boys meet, Millar, Berge’, Abbott and Barber recorded a winning time of 8:12.46 in the 4×800, with Adam Hunt (9:37.52) and Patrick Perry (9:55.90)in the 3,200. ElHabbal, Ngadula, Noble and David Benman were second in the 4×400 in 3:36.46 to B’ville’s 3:32.74.
But Benman did win the large-field mile in 4:42.36, with Brian Geehrer second in 4:42.92. Abbott was second in the 800 in 1:59.72, just ahead of ElHabbal (2:02.52) in third place.
Ed Cheathen went 1:04.42 in the 400 hurdles, finishing second to Oneida’s Steve Patricia (1:02.92). Paul Billinson was third in the 3,000-meter steeplechase in 11:02.34, while Ngadula gained fifth place in the 400 sprint.
Justin Jones won the pole vault, the only competitor to clear 11 feet. Kyle Harbour managed 2,562 points in the boys pentathlon, second to Watertown’s Matt Olney, who won with 2,991 points.
Kyle Bronson, with a toss of 43’11”, finished second to Liverpool’s Geoffrey Bell (48’9”) in the shot put, and also got third place in the discus with a throw of 110’7”. Parker Noble went 37 feet in the triple jump, also finishing third, while Chibu Ezidegwu took fifth in the high jump.
