Since it only had three opponents in last Thursday’s CNY Counties League American division championship meet at Liverpool High School Stadium, the Fayetteville-Manlius track and field teams knew it was a heavy favorite.
Indeed, the Hornets did win both sides of the meet over Auburn, Corcoran and Nottingham, scoring 238 points on the girls side and 208 points on the boys side.
So F-M used the event to prepare itself for head-to-head competition against Liverpool, plus the likes of Cicero-North Syracuse, West Genesee, Baldwinsville and Rome Free Academy, when it took part in this Wednesday’s Section III Class AA championships at C-NS’s Bragman Stadium.
Kaitlyn Neal would roar to a time of four minutes, 33.27 seconds in the girls 1,500-meter run, with Samantha Levy second in 4:33.05. Later, in the 3,000-meter run, that same pair would run together, Levy (10:43.28) edging out Neal (10:43.32) at the line, and Levy capped off her day with a swift victory in the 2,000-meter steeplechase in 7:19.28.
Haleigh Pascual joined Neal, Levy and Sophie Ryan in the 4×800 relay, where F-M posted 10:31.25. Neal returned again in the 4×400, joined by Christy Berge’, Susan Bansbach and Nina Basile as the Hornets pulled away for another win in 4:18.28. Ryan finished second in the 400-meter dash in 1:01.19 behind Corcoran’s Jaelyn Howard (1:00.90), with Berge’ third in 1:02.19.
Cady Barns had her lone victory in the triple jump, her best leap of 34 feet 2 ¾ inches topping a field where Febe Oley was third, going 32’3”. Barns was third in the 100-meter dash in 13.15 seconds, with Bansbach fourth in 13.45 seconds.
Sydney O’Dell edged Auburn’s Emily Kukiela, 17.60 seconds to 17.76, to win the 100-meter hurdles as Arianna Madill was fourth in 18.85 seconds. In the 200-meter dash, Bansbach gained second place in 27.47 seconds, two spots ahead of Berge’ (28.63) in fourth place.
Brittany Travis won the discus, throwing it 78 feet 7 inches, while Sophia Jones was second with a heave of 72’10”. Travis also was second in the shot put with a throw of 30’4” as Jones (26’3 ¼”) finished fourth.
Nina Basile got second place in the 400 hurdles in 1:13.90, just behind Corcoran’s Danyel Parks-Pridgeon (1:13.47) as Grace Hausladen was third in 1:15.38.
Oley, topping 8 feet, was second to Auburn’s Meghan Dann (8’6”) in the pole vault, and then got second place in the long jump with 15’3 ¼” as Barns (15 feet) got third place. Hausladen topped 4’8” in the high jump, finishing second to Auburn’s Marissa Netti (4’10”) as O’Dell was third, topping 4’6”.
F-M went 1-2 in the boys mile, where Patrick Perry won in 4:28.64 and Bryan Geehrer was second in 4:35.53. Geehrer rebounded to win the 800 in 2:06.34, pulling away from Mark Vaccaro, who still got second place in 2:09.67.
In the 3,200-meter run Perry returned to roll to victory in 9:35.59 as Ben Otis took second place in 10:02.51. Geehrer would dominate the 3,000-meter steeplechase, winning in 10:06.76 ahead of Brendan Pearl (10:44.37) in the runner-up spot.
In the 4×800 relay, Geehrer, Patrick Perry, Kenny Kaiser and Jack Boltman prevailed in 8:36.18, nearly a minute ahead of Auburn’s 9:35.05. F-M also won the 4×400 when Boltman, Kaiser, Sean Donlon and Vincent Perry edged Auburn, 3:38.74 to the Maroons’ 3:38.89.
Perry got a title of his own in the pole vault, clearing 10’6”, one of two F-M wins in field events as Chibu Ezidegwu, in the triple jump, went 41’9 ½”. Kaiser was fourth in the 400 sprint in 53.77 seconds, just behind teammate Michael Young, who gained third place in 53.74 seconds.
Connor Florczyk, in 17.83 seconds, topped Mukthar Qubaisy (18.23 seconds) for first place in the 110 high hurdles, with Florczyk hitting the line in 12.04 seconds in the 100 sprint, inches behind Armando Adrian. The 400 hurdles saw Qubaisy again get close, in 1:04.82, just behind the 1:04.46 that Donlon posted.
Romello Mitchell rose to second place in the high jump, clearing 5’6’, and also was runner-up to Auburn’s Kavon Hunt (22’1 ¼”) in the long jump with 19’ ¼” while also finishing second (36’ ½”) to Ezidegwu in the triple jump. Florczyk was third in the long jump, leaping 18’5”.
In the 4×100, Adrian, Florczyk, Chibu Ezidegwu and Maxwell Gibbs were third in 46.30 seconds, just behind Nottingham (46.12) and Corcoran (46.24) at the line, with Adrian going on to nab fourth place in the 200 in 24.53 seconds, while Gibbs (25.18 seconds) was seventh.
Deion Travis, with a discus throw of 112’8”, gained fourth place, with Ryan Ziobrowski (97 feet) in seventh place. Jacob Rhea (36’5”) and Travis (35’5”) were fifth and sixth, respectively, in the shot put.
