At last, the top CNY Counties League indoor track and field teams were together, and everyone seemed to take something out of Friday night’s league championship meet at Utica College’s Hutton Dome.
But the most important prize, at least on the girls side, went to Fayetteville-Manlius, who with 121 points got away from Cicero-North Syracuse (95 points) and Liverpool (92 points) to claim the team title.
Turning quickly to its distance runners, F-M earned 24 points in the 3,000-meter run as Claire Walters won in 10 minutes, 6.48 seconds, ahead of Rebecca Walters (10:36.24) in second place and Alex Villalba (10:43.61) in third place.
Sophie Ryan then took over, winning twice, including the 1,000-meter run, where she finished in 2:50.90 and Phoebe White was second in 2:59.69 as Christy Berge’ (3:03.85) got fourth place.
Moving to the 600-meter run, Ryan won in 1:37.60, edging West Genesee’s Carly Benson (1:38.08) by less than half a second, and she also got fourth place in the 300-meter dash in 43.95 seconds, with Palmer Madsen sixth in 45.63 seconds.
White followed up by claiming the 1,500-meter run in 4:48.53, chased by Claire Walters in second place (4:56.12) and Rebecca Walters in fourth place (5:02.14). In the 4×800 relay, Rebecca Walters helped Berge’, Villalba and Grace Perry win in 9:49.91, more than eight seconds ahead of the field.
Gwenn Shepardson rolled to victory in her specialty, the 55-meter hurdles, finishing in 9.05 seconds ahead of Baldwinsville’s Adrianna Straughter (9.19 seconds) and the field. Shepardson was also ninth in the triple jump, going 31’3″ against a tough field.
In the 4×400 relay, Berge’, Susan Bansbach, Reilly Madsen and Palmer Madsen finished in 4;13.41, second to West Genesee, who prevailed in 4:10.29. Bansbach joined Sydney O’Dell, Phoebe Lindabury and Chloe Bullough to finish second (1:52.69) behind Baldwinsville (1:49.04) in the 4×200 relay.
Elsewhere, Grace Hausladen got sixth place in the shot put with a toss of 25’1″ and finished eighth in the weight throw (22’5″) as O’Dell was sixth in the high jump, clearing 4’8″, and 10th in the 55-meter hurdles.
F-M’s boys indoor track team had its own strong showing in the CNYCL meet, posting 77 points for fourth place, just behind Liverpool (80 points) as C-NS (123.5 points) held off Baldwinsville (111.5 points) to prevail.
Joe Walters got it going for the Hornets, winning the 3,200-meter run in 9:40.20, chased by, among others, Ben Otis, who got third place in 9:59.83 as Matt Tripp finished sixth in 10:26.93.
In field events, Romello Mitchell prevailed in the high jump, his top clearance of 5’10” two inches ahead of B’ville’s Nate Jaquint as Ryan Kaczorowski (5’4″) was seventh. Also, Mitchell made it to third place in the triple jump, going 40′ 1/4″ as he took sixth place in the long jump with a leap of 18’7 1/4″.
Patrick Perry ran the 1,000 in 2:35.12, second to Liverpool’s Stephen Schulz (2:33.13) as Jack Duncanson got fourth place in 2:43.09. Perry also finished third in the mile in 4:28.77 as Walters got fifth place in 4:38.62. Duncanson, Walters, Perry and Garrett Brennan were fourth (8:42.33) in the 4×800.
Eric Coley, two days after signing his football letter of intent to go to Syracuse University, got second place in the 300 in 36.81 seconds behind C-NS’s Jeremiah Willis (36.13 seconds). He also was sixth in the 55 hurdles as Armando Adrian was ninth and Jacob Roberts 10th.
Brennan, John Nethercott, Casey Coleman and Stefan Mina were fourth in the 4×400 in 3:50.53, while Adrian, Nethercott, Coley and Roberts were fourth in the 4×200 in 1:37.80.
Jacob Rhea had a fifth-place shot put toss of 41’1 1/2″. Ben Welling finished seventh in the 600, with Mina ninth in the 55 hurdles and Coleman ninth in the weight throw.
