From Fayetteville-Manlius to Jamesville-DeWitt to East Syracuse Minoa to Christian Brothers Academy, local track and field athletes earned a large share of the winner’s glory during Friday’s Section III state qualifier at Cicero-North Syracuse’s Bragman Stadium.
This means there’s a deep, talented contingent of runners and jumpers making their way to the University at Albany this weekend, in search of state championship glory.
F-M swept the 4×800 relay races. On the boys side, Bryce Millar, Kyle Barber, Hamza El Habbal and Jon Abbott went 7:48.31 to beat Liverpool (7:51.74), though both advanced to the state meet, with El Habbal, Barber, Ed Cheatham and Jules Ngadula winning the boys 4×400 in 3:22.72.
Meanwhile, in the girls 4×800, Jessica Howe, Sophia Ryan, Olivia Ryan and Reilly Madsen got challenged by West Genesee, but prevailed, 9:21.68 to the Wildcats’ 9:24.76, as Bishop Grimes’ Sara Hopkins, Maria Naylor, Isabella Naylor and Jordan Sloan posted 10:10.33.
Millar beat Carthage’s Noah Affolder, 9:03.19 to Affolder’s 9:04.02, in the boys 3,200-meter run, also topping Adam Hunt (9:26.79), who was fourth, and Patrick Perry (9:39.71), who took sixth place.
Battling for the top spot in the girls triple jump, F-M’s Christabel Ezidiegwu won, going 37 feet 3 inches, edging out ESM’s Mia Montgomery, who went exactly 37 feet. Savanna Pidkaminy contended in the pole vault, clearing 8 feet to finish fourth.
Ezidiegwu also paired with Shauna Cheatham, Sarah Olick-Sutphen and Anna Perrotti to finish third in the 4×100 relay in 49.76 seconds, just behind Carthage (49.65 seconds) and Rome Free Academy (49.67 seconds) in a tight race to the wire.
In an exciting girls 1,500-meter run, Sophia Ryan, in 4:46.56, rallied past West Genesee’s Carly Benson (4:47.15) to prevail, with J-D’s Sophia Vinciguerra seventh in 5:09.14.
Olivia Ryan earned her title in the 800-meter run in 2:16.91 as the Red Rams’ Rachel Fairbanks (2:22.95) was fourth, while in the 3,000-meter run Samantha Levy went 9:58 flat to beat ESM’s Natalie Marra, who took second place in 10:02.78 as J-D’s Hannah Butler (10:49.52) was further back.
Seventh-grader Phoebe White got another victory for the Hornets in the 2,000-meter steeplechase, posting 7:08.75 to hold off Whitesboro’s Justyna Wilkinson (7:12.38), who is four years older. Gwenn Shepardson was victorious in the 100 hurdles in 16.29 seconds. Riley Hughes, in the boys 3,000 steeplechase, was second in 9:44.84 on the Division I side as ESM’s Matt Young was third in 10:21.92.
J-D freshman Alexandria Payne picked up 3,168 points to win the Division I portion of the pentathlon and finish second overall to South Jefferson’s Skylar Pastor, who had 3,235 points. Manlius-Pebble Hill’s Jordan Dunaway-Barlow had 2,092 points.
On the boys side for J-D, Dylan Volk won the triple jump, going 44’3” to beat Central Square’s Erich Metz (43’5”). Volk also finished second in the boys long jump, going 21’10 ¼”,
ESM nabbed a victory in the boys 110 high hurdles, where Jeremy McGrath held off C-NS’s Ed Mahana, 15.34 seconds to 15.39, to advance to the state meet. Abdullah Mujcic was fourth in the 100-meter dash in 11.46 seconds as McGrath took fourth (21’ ¼”) in the long jump behind Volk.
In Division II (small schools), CBA had lots of standouts, especially Anna Schug, who dominated the 400-meter dash in 56.62 seconds (no one else broke the one-minute mark) and won the 200-meter dash in 25.43 seconds.
Kiana Ferguson, fourth in the 200 (26.49 seconds) behind Schug, won the 100 sprint in 12.80 seconds, edging Morrisville-Eaton’s Sarah Grabiec (12.88 seconds).
Schug, Ferguson, Kate LaCasse (who was seventh in the 400 sprint) and Ryleigh Peterson went exactly 50 seconds in the 4×100 to hold off Skaneateles (50.64 seconds) and the field. Skylar Decker took sixth in the 100 hurdles in 16.84 seconds, while Elissa Kempisty was seventh in the triple jump.
On the boys end, CBA’s Dominic Morganti won the Division II portion of the 3,200 in 9:52.01, holding off Utica-Notre Dame’s Dan Hillman (9:55.99) to advance to the state meet, while Tom SanGiacomo beat Lowville’s Isaac Worrall, 22.65 seconds to 22.80, to win in the 200.
