Onondaga — Amid a cascade of success for area indoor track and field athletes during Wednesday night’s Section III state qualifying meet at SRC Arena, Fayetteville-Manlius senior Kaitlyn Neal found a way to stick out.
Neal already held the sectional record in the girls 3,000-meter run. But when she crossed the finish line this time, she had posted nine minutes, 28.59 seconds, crushing her old mark of 9:40.03 by more than 11 seconds and also the second-fastest time in the country in that event this winter.
In all, six F-M runners took part in that event, with Samantha Levy a distant second in 10:04.54 as Jenna Farrell and Claire Walters were fourth and fifth, respectively, while Palmer Madsen was eighth and Reilly Madsen ninth. Jamesville-DeWitt saw Hannah Butler finish third in 10:22.85 as East Syracuse Minoa senior Natalie Marra got sixth place in 10:41.64.
Also for the girls Hornets, Sophie Ryan claimed the 600-meter run in 1:35.97, with J-D’s Casey Keane third in 1:39.30, ahead of teammate Elena Haarer in 10th place. CBA’s Olivia Morganti, who finished in 1:43.20, took eighth place, while F-M’s Christy Berge’ (1:42.63) was seventh.
And in the 4×800 relay, the Hornets pulled away again, seeing Neal and Ryan join Rebecca Walters and Phoebe White to post a time of 9:32.82 that left them more than half a minute ahead of Liverpool (10:05.63) and the field. F-M also finished seventh (1:51.96) in the 4×200 relay.
Away from all this, J-D, ESM and Christian Brothers Academy each racked up victories, with the Red Rams’ Alexandria Payne claiming a pair of titles.
In the girls 55-meter hurdles, Payne qualified for the final in 8.70 seconds but then, in the final, improved to 8.58 seconds, well clear of Cicero-North Syracuse’s Cassie Baldwin (8.90 seconds), who finished second. CBA’s Skylar Decker was eighth in 9.33 seconds.
continued — Payne would move on to the high jump and clear 5 feet 1 inch, the same height as Skaneateles sophomore Mia Grasso, but since Payne had fewer misses than Grasso, she prevailed again.
CBA did better on the girls side in the 300-meter dash, where Anna Schug settled in and, in 42.03 seconds, easily prevailed, her nearest competitor nearly half a second behind as Corcoran’s Jaelyn Howard took that second spot in 42.45 seconds. Tom SanGiacomo was ninth in the boys 300 in 38.53 seconds.
Schug, Morganti, Kiana Ferguson and Ryleigh Peterson took third place in the 4×200 in 1:49.85 as Skaneateles (1:46.72) edged Rome Free Academy (1:46.87) to prevail, but in the long jump no one topped Ferguson, who won with a best leap of 17 feet, nearly a foot ahead of Vernon-Verona-Sherrill’s Katja Meyer (16’ ½”).
ESM’s Jeremy McGrath was victorious in the boys 55 hurdles, where he and Isaiah Brooks both made the finals and, in 7.67 seconds, McGrath pulled away from Baldiwnsville’s Evan Donhauser (7.91 seconds) as Brooks made it to fourth place in 8.20 seconds.
Then, in the girls triple jump, the Spartans prevailed again thanks to Mia Montgomery as the ESM sophomore unleashed a top leap of 37 feet 1 ¼ inches, comfortably ahead of C-NS’s Shayla Webb, who was second by going 36’7”.
F-M won a single event on the boys side –the mile, where Bryan Geehrer, in 4:25.77 edged out West Genesee’s David Leff (4:26.01) at the line. Patrick Perry, who was fifth in the mile (4:41.73), finished third in the 3,200-meter run in 9:44.05.
Cady Barns earned a third-place long jump of 15’11 ½”, Meaghan Howe was fifth in the girls 55-meter dash in 7.59 seconds and Alex Villalba was sixth (5:04.07) in the 1,500-meter run, where J-D’s Sophia Vinciguerra (4:58.45) got fifth place. Chibu Ezidegwu went 41’1 ¼” in the boys triple jump, finishing fifth.
J-D’s Nolan Roosa, clearing 5’10”, got fourth place in the high jump. Gabrielle Tanksley was fifth in the girls pole vault, clearing 9 feet as teammate Sara Signorelli (8 feet) tied for seventh. The Rams’ Alex Le topped 11 feet in the boys pole vault and shared ninth place. Mariah Williams was seventh (29’9 ¼”) in the girls shot put.
Neal, Payne and the rest of the top athletes will head to Cornell University’s Barton Hall this Saturday to compete in the New York State Public High School Athletic Association championship meet.
