Kaitlyn Neal conquered the featured race, and her Fayetteville-Manlius girls track and field teammates handled everything else, too, on the way to a convincing victory at last Friday’s Chittenango Invitational.
Earning 147 points, the Hornets more than doubled the total of runner-up Liverpool, who had 68 points. East Syracuse Minoa, with 36 points, beat out Jamesville-DeWitt (35.33 points) for sixth place.
In the featured Fleet Feet Mile, Neal didn’t let anyone catch her, getting under the five-minute mark and winning in four minutes, 56.51 seconds. Sophja Ryan, in 5:01.03, finished second, with J-D’s Hannah Butler third in 5:08.48 and her teammate, Sophia Vinciguerra, seventh in 5:16.38.
Another mile race saw F-M go 1-2, with Palmer Madsen prevailing in 5:16.37, well clear of Rebecca Walters (5;26.73) in the runner-up spot as J-D saw Abby Palin get to fourth place in 5:42.85. Moving to the 3,000-meter run, Samantha Levy roared to a time of 9:51.47, pulling away from Claire Walters, who was second in 10:36.54.
Gwenn Shepardson beat the field in the 100-meter hurdles in 16.22 seconds, with ESM’s Mackenzie Bourdon (17.70 seconds) in third place. Then Shepardson made it a pair of wins when she went 1:09.86 to get away from Liverpool’s Abby Haley (1:11.34) and prevail in the 400-meter hurdles. Eighth-grader Phoebe White won the 2,000-meter steeplechase in 7:38.45, with Reilly Madsen gaining third place in 7:55.46.
F-M also found a victory in field events, thanks to Cady Barns, whose top triple jump of 32 feet 7 ½ inches beat out Chittenango’s Krissy Roberts (32’2 ¼”) in the second spot. Barns was third (14’10”) and Febe Oley fourth (14’7 ¾”) in the long jump, with Oley adding a fifth in the triple jump behind Barns.
Sydney O’Dell, competing in the five-event pentathlon, finished second with 2,135 points, while J-D’s Lainey Foti was fourth with 1,878 points. Susan Bansbach got fourth place in the 400-meter dash in 1:02.60, with Jenna Farrell third (2;23.08) and Christy Berge’ fourth (2:23.63) in the 800-meter run.
F-M’s best relay effort came in the 4×400, where Shepardson, Bansbach, Berge’ and White posted a time of 4:18.78, gaining them second place, but trailing West Genesee, who rolled to victory in 4:10.69. Brittany Travis was fourth in the shot put, throwing it 30 feet 2 ¾ inches.
ESM flourished in field events, where Jennah Ferrariwon the high jump, clearing 4’10”, two inches clear of the field as J-D’s Lauren Saletsky tied for sixth. Lindsey Crego, fifth in the shot put, rose to second place in the discus, her throw of 88’4” topped only by Cicero-North Syracuse’s Destiny Monica, who won with 97 feet.
Alexis Garm, clearing 8 feet, gained fourth place in the pole vault. The Spartans also had Maria Hall, Kaitlyn Killino, Mabae Nishimura and Kaylee DeLucia get third place in the 4×100 relay in 54.97 seconds.
J-D’s Elena Haarer nearly won the 400 sprint, going 1:02.01 to finish two spots ahead of Bansbach and second behind Auburn’s Nakeya Rogers, who prevailed in 1:01.60.
Gabrielle Tanksley cleared 9 feet in the pole vault, second only to Liverpool’s Kelley Townley, who topped the same height, but with fewer misses. Jessica Pace made it to sixth place in the shot put, while Ciara Norris was fourth in the triple jump (31’7”) and seventh in the long jump.
Meanwhle, in the boys version of the Chittenango Invitational, F-M only got 29 points and settled for seventh place, far off Liverpool’s winning total of 113 points. J-D also took part and, with 18 points, finished 11th in the 22-team field.
During the boys Fleet Feet Mile, F-M’s Patrick Perry got a time of 4:27.02, good for third place, ahead of Bryan Geehrer (4:29.57), but everyone chasing Liverpool’s Ben Petrella, who won in 4:19.10.
Max Perry, in the 3,200-meter run, finished third in 10:09.94, while Ben Otis took fifth place in 10:12.38. Brendan Pearl gained fifth place in the 3,000-meter steeplechase in 10:46.84 as Chibu Ezidegwu was third in the triple jump, going 40’4 ¾” as Connor Florczyk (39 feet) was sixth.
J-D’s best finish came in the full-field mile where Patrick Dye, in 4:37.99, was a close second to Auburn’s Grant Stokoe (4:36.46). Also, in the 4×100 relay, Shane Smith, Jhakeer Jamison, Trey Greene and Seth Blair were third in 45.69 seconds as F-M (47.26 seconds) settled for sixth place.
Henry Middleton, throwing the discus 104’6”, claimed fifth place, while Chris Blust was fifth in the pole vault, clearing 10’6”, and Trey Greene was seventh in the long jump.
What made F-M’s effort at Chittenango more remarkable was that it had competed in two meets in the previous three days, winning both of them. The Hornets rolled past Auburn 90-20 last Tuesday afternoon as the F-M boys, who lost its opener to Cicero-North Syracuse a week earlier, got into the win column by handling the Maroons 75-26.
In the girls meet, Ryan gained an 800-meter title in 2:48.8, while Palmer Madsen covered 1,500 meters in 5:14.4 and Reilly Madsen got to first place in the 3,000-meter run in 12:41.2.
Barns rolled to first place in the 200 in 27.9 seconds and also ran a leg in F-M’s winning 4×100 relay side, which finished in 51.37 seconds. Gwen Shepardson followed up her 400 hurdles victory (1:16.9) by helping Ryan, Christelle Pompee and Susan Bansbach take first in the 4×400 relay in 4:30.4.
O’Dell, cleared 4’2” in the high jump. Brittany Travis threw the shot put 29’5”as Katie Neuberger cleared 5’6” in the pole vault. Ryan, Madsen, Walters and Sarah Duntley were victorious in the 4×800 relay in 11:09.5.
Moving on to Thursday’s meet against Corcoran, F-M won easily here, too, claiming the girls meet 117-19 and the boys meet by an 84-50 margin.
Barns claimed the 100 in 15.4 seconds before going 14’11” in the long jump and 33’1” in the triple jump. Shepardson also won twice, improving to 1:11.5 in the 400 hurdles and taking the 100-meter hurdles in 16.7 seconds.
Madsen was victorious in the 800 (2:51.5) and 3,000 (12:34 flat) as Ryan went 1:01.1 in the 400 sprint and Alex Villalba prevailed in the 1,500 in 5:05.1. Elsewhere, Bansbach went 28.5 seconds to win the 200 as O’Dell cleared 4’8” in the high jump. Travis threw the shot put 30’2” as Sophia Jones had a first-place discus throw of 70’11”.
In the boys meet between F-M and Corcoran, Jack Duncanson and Ryan Kaczorowski each won twice, Duncanson topping 6 feet in the high jump and going 35’10” in the triple jump as Kaczorowski went 18.1 seconds in the 110 high hurdles and won the 400 hurdles in 1:04.5.
Jack Boltman took first place in the 800 in 2:09.6, with Patrick Perry going 5:32.1 in the mile. Vincent Perry won the pole vault, clearing 9’6”, and helped Geehrer, Patrick Perry and Max Perry take the 4×800 in 8:56.6. Romello Mitchell unleashed a top long jump of 18’8 ½” as Michael Young ran the 400 sprint in 54 seconds flat and Elijah Dupri was first in the 3,200-meter run in 10:51.0.
