Members of the Fayetteville-Manlius girls track and field team are making many trips to Cicero-North Syracuse’s Bragman Stadium in the month ahead, hoping to culminate those efforts during the June 10-11 state championship meet.
First, though, the Hornets were to venture to C-NS for last Friday’s John Arcaro Classic, normally hosted by Baldwinsville, but moved down Route 31 because Pelcher-Arcaro Stadium is undergoing renovations that will include a new track and artificial turf field.
No matter the venue, F-M still went to the top of the standings, earning 131 points while setting several season-best times. C-NS was second with 93 points as East Syracuse Minoa got 32 points to tie for seventh place in the 14-team field and Christian Brothers Academy finished with 19 points for 10th place. Bishop Grimes had six points.
To get it going, the F-M girls’ 4×800 relay team of Christy Berge’, Samantha Levy, Jenna Farrell and Rebecca Walters won in nine minutes, 44.20 seconds. No one else came close to breaking he 10-minute mark as ESM, in 10:48.97, finished fifth.
Then Gwenn Shepardson struck with a pair of wins in her specialties, going 1:08.29 to put away a field in the 400 hurdles that included ESM’s Mackenzie Bourdon, who was fourth in 1:11.86 as CBA’s Lea Kyle (1;12.67) was sixth.
Moving to the 100-meter hurdles, Shepardson prevailed again, edging C-NS’s Brittany House, 16.17 seconds to 16.30, though again Bourdon was a factor for the Spartans, finishing third in 17.40 seconds.
Going 1-2 in the 1,500-meter run, the Hornets had Sophie Ryan, in 4:48.01, prevail by less than a second over Levy (4:48.86), while in the 3,000-meter run Kaitlyn Neal went 9:34.33 to win big as ESM’s Natalie Marra was second in 10:18.58 and F-M’s Claire Walters got third place in 10:32.38.
Rebecca Walters waited until the 800-meter run, where she went 2:21.74 to pull away for a title and Farrell was third in 2:23.99 behind C-NS’s Jilliann Norris (2:23.40). Finally, in the 4×400 relay, Farrell, Berge’, Ryan and Palmer Madsen went 4;09.23 to prevail as Sloan, Sara Hopkins, Liz Wolaver and Abigail Wilkinson got Grimes to fourth place in 4:20.38, beating out ESM (4:21.52), who was sixth.
Also for F-M, Susan Bansbach, in 1:01.46, was second in the 400-meter dash, exactly one second behind Liverpool’s Kierra Richarson (1:00.46), while Sloan was fifth in 1:02.14. Madsen was third (7:44.55) and Phoebe White fourth (7:56.84) in the 2,000-meter steeplechase. Brittany Travis got to fourth place in the discus with at throw of 84 feet 5 inches and earned sixth place (30’6”) in the shot put.
Cady Barns got fourth place in the 100-meter dash in 13.22 seconds, later joining up with Bansbach, Phoebe Lindabury and Sydney O’Dell as F-M was fourth in the 4×100 relay in 52.10 seconds, and ESM again was sixth in 54.19 seconds.
Where ESM did beat F-M was in the long jump, thanks to Mia Montgomery, who was third with a leap of 16’5”, two spots ahead of Barns (15’11 ¾”), who rebounded to get third place in the triple jump with 35’7 ½” as CBA had Eliza Kempisty fifth with a leap of 33’7 ¾”.
CBA’s Nafysa Williams won the high jump when she cleared 5 feet 2 inches with fewer misses than Baldwinsville’s Adriana Straughter. The Brothers also saw Claire Bargabos finish third in the 200-meter dash in 27.43 seconds, with Bansbach fifth in 28.25 seconds.
In the boys edition of the Arcaro Classic, F-M had 40 points to take fifth place as C-NS, with 100 points, pulled away from Baldwinsville (75 points) and the field. ESM was seventh with 30 points and CBA had eight points.
To lead the Hornets, Patrick Perry won the 3,200-meter run in 9:33.45 over CBA’s Dominic Morganti (9:49.88) in second place, with Max Perry fifth in 10:16.83.
Bryan Geehrer was second in the 3,000-meter steeplechase in 9:56.87 as ESM’s Matt Young was fourth in 10:06.06, two spots ahead of the Hornets’ Brendan Pearl (10:37.80) in sixth place. Geehrer added a second-place time of 4:38.17 in the mile behind Syracuse ITC’s Solomon Lawrence (4:32.14), with Young claiming fifth place in 4:43.14.
Vincent Perry, Joe Walters, Mark Vaccaro and Michael Young gave F-M a fourth-place time of 8:44.15 in the 4×800. Mukhtar Qubaisy, in 1:04.73, edged out teammate Sean Donlon (1:04.74) for sixth place in the 400 hurdles as Perry took seventh in the high jump.
Kenny Kaiser (2:06.82) and Jack Boltman (2:07.06) were fifth and sixth, respectively, in the 800, but also paired up with Patrick Perry and Vincent Perry to finish fifth in the 4×400 relay in 3;42.82. Chibu Ezidegwu cleared 5’10” in the high jump, taking fifth place.
ESM’s Jeremy McGrath was victorious in the 110 high hurdles, going 14.93 seconds as C-NS’s Joe Williams was second in 15.11 seconds and Isaiah Brooks helped the Spartans, finishing fourth in 15.65 seconds.
The Spartans also had Ny’Zhier Jefferson throw the shot put 44’5 ¼” to take third place, with Gabe Holloman fourth with a toss of 42’8 ½” as Gavin Stevens made it to seventh place in the discus, one spot ahead of the Hornets’ Deion Travis as F-M’s Connor Florczyk was eighth in the long jump.
