One thing that the Fayetteville-Manlius track and field team is not used to is defeat – to anyone.
Yet that’s what the boys Hornets had to cope with Wednesday afternoon as it took a narrow 72-69 defeat to Baldwinsville at Pelcher-Arcaro Stadium.
Six days earlier, F-M had nearly lost at Liverpool, but pulled it out by that same 72-69 margin. Here, it would not be as fortunate, despite five combined victories from Kyle Barber and Bryce Millar.
Having claimed the 400-meter dash in 51.2 seconds, Barber moved on to the 400-meter hurdles and gained first place in 58.2 seconds before a top triple jump of 38 feet 9 ½ inches. As for Millar, he ran the mile in a quick 4:37.4 before taking the 800-meter run in 2:07 flat.
Andrew Berge’ went 10:23.3 in the 3,200-meter run as he also joined Millar, Jon Abbot and Hamza Elhabbal for a victory in the 4×800 relay in 8:58.0.
Kyle Harbour won the long jump, going 17’11 ½”, with Justin Jones clearing 10’6” in the pole vault and Kyle Bronson throwing the shot put 41’6” to win that event.
B’ville prevailed, though, by claiming two of three relays to gain valuable points. Brian Mahar ran a leg in both of those relays, also claiming the 100-meter dash (11.4 seconds) and 200-meter dash (23.8 seconds) to help the Bees finish in front.
While all this was going on, the F-M girls track team, with Christabel Ezidiegwu earning four first-place finishes, jumped all over Baldwinsville and claimed a 106-35 victory.
Having already prevailed in the 100-meter hurdles in 17.6 seconds, Ezidiegwu went to field events, where she added three more titles. Ezidiegwu cleared 4’6” in the high jump, went 15’6” in the long jump and flew 34’1 ½” in the triple jump, prevailing in all of them.
F-M also earned plenty of points on the oval, as Annika Avery was first in the 800 in 2:27.4, Alana Pearl covered 3,000 meters in 10:39.3 and Samantha Levy went 5:04.4 in the 1,500-meter run. Abby Konys added a victory in the 400 hurdles in 1:17.3.
Olivia Ryan, who took the 400 sprint in 1:02.8, joined Pearl, Jenna Farrell and Jessica Howe for a victory in the 4×800 relay in 10:04.2.
As part of F-M’s relay sweep, Ryan, Avery, Anna Perrotti and Shauna Cheathan ran the 4×400 in 4:28.2, this after Natalie Zazzara, Nicole Amico, Chantal Brennan and Sarah Olick-Sutphen went 53.6 seconds in the 4×100.
