Once it knew that it could place up to four entrants in any single event during Tuesday’s Section III Class AA championship meet at Central Square, the Fayetteville-Manlius girls track and field team did so – and it seemed to work out well.
The Hornets piled up victories and high finishes in its specialty, distance running, and used that as a foundation for a total of 145.5 points, nearly double that of runner-up Rome Free Academy, who was second with 83 points.
It all started in the 4×800 relay, where F-M’s strong quartet of Annika Avery, Alana Pearl, Jenna Farrell and Jessica Howe posted nine minutes, 30.66 seconds, leaving West Genesee (9:47.68) and the field far behind them.
Then, in the 1,500-meter run, Avery, with a top time of 4:37.24, led a 1-2-3 sweep that included Pearl in second place (4:40.46) and Farrell in third place (4:50.42), with Samantha Levy getting fifth place in 4:54.07 to give the Hornets 26 points in this race alone.
Not done yet, Avery also won the 800-meter run in 2:17.63, edging out B’ville’s Rachael Miller (2:16.83) at the line, with Pearl third in 2:17.90 and Howe (2:18.38) in fourth place.
Pearl finally got a victory in the 2,000-meter steeplechase in 7:04.9, with Avery (7:17.4) creating yet another 1-2 finish and Sophia Ryan fourth in 7:43.1.
Levy took her turn at the top in the 3,000-meter run, finishing in 10:34.52 to pull away from WG’s Lindsay Weaver (10:39.31), with Farrell third (10:48.85), Mackenzie Pierie fifth and Reilly Madsen sixth.
And to cap off this domination on the oval, F-M’s 4×400 relay team of Howe, Olivia Ryan, Rachel Dise and Anna Perrotti made their way to first place in a thrilling finish, edging B’ville by 0.05 seconds, 4:02.79 to the Bees’ 4:02.84.
Dise, on her own, took third place in the 400-meter hurdles in 1:08.40, while Christobel Ezidiegwu got third in the 100-meter hurdles in 16.59 seconds. Perrotti took third in the 400-meter dash in 1:00.32, with Olivia Ryan (1:00.77) taking fourth place. Ezidiegwu added a third-place triple jump of 35 feet 10 1/2 inches and a fifth-place long jump of 15’1 1/4″.
Chantal Brennan was sixth in the 100-meter dash in 13.54 seconds, just ahead of teammate Nicole Amico (13.58 seconds) for that spot, while Sarah Olick-Sutphen was seventh in the 200-meter dash. Olick-Sutphen, Brennan, Amico and Dise claimed fifth (52.24 seconds) in the 4×100 relay.
Savannah Pidkaminy, clearing 8’6″, tied for fourth in the pole vault, to go with a seventh-place effort in the discus. Anna Castro cleared 4’10” for fifth place in the high jump as Shannie Nesher was eighth in the pentathlon with 1,603 points.
Then much the same thing happened in Wednesday’s sectional Class AA boys meet at Cicero-North Syracuse’s Bragman Stadium, with F-M dominating the distance races and earning 138 points to hold off Liverpool (110 points) and complete the clean sweep of the team titles.
Kyle Barber earned 26 points by himself, winning the 400 sprint in 49.40 seconds as teammate Hamza ElHabbal took fifth, and then going to the 400 hurdles where, in 55.13 seconds, he was a close second to C-NS’s Pete Girardi (54.71 seconds). Barber also went 41’7” in the triple jump to finish just behind Liverpool’s Mark Vanmarter, who won with 42’5 ½”.
Bryce Millar ran the mile in 4:21.98, prevailing over Andrew Berge’, who was second in 4:22.75. They ran together again in the 3,200-meter run, with Berge’ winning in 9:31.27 to beat out Millar, who finished in 9:31.34. Also, Millar took second in the 800 in 1:59.44, inches behind Liverpool’s Alex Christensen (1:59.37), with Jon Abbott fourth in 2:01.05 and Berge’ in fifth place.
Millar and Berge’ joined Abbott and ElHabbal to post 7:57.12 in the 4×800 relay, topping Liverpool (8:01.72) to win. Later in the meet, Abbott, Barber, Jules Ngadula and Ed Cheathen to win the 4×400 in 3:27.95, with Liverpool (3:29.01) again in second. F-M added a sixth-place finish in the 4×100.
Justin Jones and C-NS’s Mark Hentges both cleared 12’3” in the pole vault, but Hentges did so with fewer misses, so Jones finished second. Ngadula made it to third place in the 200 in 24.03 seconds, with Noble fourth in 24.24 seconds to go with a sixth (19’4”) in the long jump. Chibu Ezidiegwu cleared 5’10” in the high jump to finish fourth.
Kyle Harbour was second in the pentathlon with 2,778 points to C-NS’s Morgan Austen, who won with 3,133 points. Patrick Perry was fourth (10:12.21) and Brian Geehrer fifth (10:19.82) in the 3,000-meter steeplechase, with Kyle Bronson fifth in the shot put as he heaved it 44’2 ¼”.
