Though the numbers would indicate that it was just another victory in a string of them for the Fayetteville-Manlius girls indoor track and field team, Friday’s events at Utica College’s Hutton Dome proved special.
It wasn’t just because the Hornets beat an all-new field in the fifth Mohawk Valley Indoor Track Association meet of the winter, earning 126 points to pull away from runner-up Rome Free Academy (89 points) and 18 other teams.
The special part came late in the meet, during the 1,500-meter run. F-M junior Sophie Ryan, in a time of four minutes, 29.10 seconds, broke the Section III record in that event set by Hamilton’s Sage Hurta and also posted the second-fastest time in the country in that event.
Ryan’s win was part of a 1-2-3 sweep in the 1,500, with Phoebe White second in 4:43.75 and Claire Walters third in 4:53.29. Once more, the Hornets earned a large chunk of its points in relays.
The relay sweep started in the 4×400, where Susan Bansbach, Palmer Madsen, Christy Berge’ and Reilly Madsen went 4:11.98 to hold off RFA (4:14.13) for top honors. Berge’ also was fourth in the 600-meter run in 1:43.96.
In the 4×800, Berge’ joined Alex Villalba, Reilly Madsen and Rebecca Walters for an F-M victory in 9:49.08 as no one else broke the 10-minute mark. Finally, in the 4×200, Ryan, White, Palmer Madsen and Cady Barns roared to a win in 1:50.51 to RFA’s runner-up 1:50.88.
Barns put up a winning long jump of 17 feet 1 1/2 inches, nearly a foot ahead of the field, and got second place in the triple jump with 33’11 3/4″ behind Vernon-Verona-Sherrill’s Katja Meyer (34’10”).
Rebecca Walters claimed the 1,000-meter run in 3:05.27 over RFA’s Gianna Capoccia (3:06.89). Gwenn Shepardson went 9.22 seconds in the 55-meter hurdles to prevail over Herkimer’s Mya Bass (9.40 seconds).
Palmer Madsen was second (44.37 seconds) to New Hartford’s Elizabeth Haddas (44.23 seconds) in the 300-meter dash, with Bansbach third in 45.09 seconds. Villalba was second in the 3,000-meter run in 10:48.24 behind Clinton’s Eva Borton (10:27.56) as Keita Peden (11:21.41) beat out Haleigh Pascual (11:25.59) for sixth place.
Meanwhile, the F-M boys indoor track team had a strong showing at the Hutton Dome, too, finishing with 89 points, second only to RFA’s top total of 98 points.
Patrick Perry needed 4:25.92 to pull away in the mile, nearly 10 seconds ahead of RFA’s Devone Hernandez (4:35.68) at the finish line. Then Perry joined Jack Boltman, Garrett Brennan and Joe Walters to win a tense 4×800 over New Hartford, 8:45.88 to the Spartans’ 8:46.05.
The Hornets also won the 4×400 when Boltman, Brennan, Stefan Mina and John Nethercott, in a time of 3:50.97, edged Institute of Technology Central (3:51.17) by two-tenths of a second. Nethercott, Armando Adrian, Romello Mitchell and Jacob Roberts were second (1:39.59) to RFA’s winning 1:35.75.
Ben Otis, in 10:03.26, was second, right behind New Hartford’s Josh Farmer (9:59.26), in the 3,200-meter run, with Matt Tripp third in 10:13.20 and Eli Capri (10:39.12) in fifth place.
In the 600, Jack Duncanson went 1:31.26 was second behind ITC’s Solomon Lawrence, who won in 1:26.59. Ryan Kaczorowski cleared 5’6″for fourth place in the high jump as Casey Coleman had a sixth-place triple jump of 37’7 3/4″, with ]Kaczorowski eighth (37’2″).
John Meskos was fifth in the 1,000 in 2:51.30, while Kaczorowski was sixth (18’11 3/4″) and Mitchell was seventh (18’11”) in the long jump and Adrian was eighth (39.04 seconds) in the 300. Jacob Rhea had an eighth-place shot put toss of 39’3 1/4″.
