For two months, anyone that went up against the Fayetteville-Manlius girls indoor track and field team ended up behind them in the standings.
And it happened again at the time it mattered most, during Thursday night’s Section III Class AA championships at SRC Arena, where the Hornets relied on its traditional strengths, plus some versatility, to turn back Liverpool’s challenge and win the title.
F-M finished with 127 points, while the Warriors were second with 97 points. Baldwinsville (68 points) edged out Cicero-North Syracuse (67 points) for third place.
Claire Walters went to the front in the 3,000-meter run, prevailing in 10 minutes, 9.48 seconds, more than half a minute ahead of West Genesee’s Carly Benson (10:40.46) as Alex Villalba was third in 10:46.41 and Rebecca Walters was fourth in 10:52.84, giving the Hornets 20 points in that event.
Another 18 points came in the 1,000-meter run, with Sophie Ryan breaking the three-minute mark by winning in 2:59.78 as Phoebe White was second in 3:01.22.
Ryan returned in the 600-meter run and won here, too, going 1:36.46 to, once more, beat out White, who with 1:39.35 had another runner-up finish. To cap off her 26-point individual effort, Ryan finished third in the 300-meter dash in 44.13 seconds.
Gwenn Shepardson, in a time of 8.79 seconds, beat out Baldwinsville’s Adrianna Straughter (8.97 seconds) in the 55-meter hurdles as Sydney O’Dell was eighth in 9.56 seconds, but was a far bigger factor in the high jump, gaining third place by clearing 5 feet.
In the 4×400 relay, F-M had White, Susan Bansbach, Palmer Madsen and Christy Berge’ get the victory in 4:07.08, nearly five seconds ahead of West Genesee’s 4:12.04. Then the Hornets won the 4×800 as Berge’, Villalba, Madsen and Claire Walters posted 9:50.55 to top Rome Free Academy (9:59.18) by nearly eight seconds.
Berge’ also finished second in the 1,500-meter run in 4:53.46 behind Cicero-North Syracuse’s Mia Pestle (4:49.99), while Claire Walters was fifth (4:58.67) and Villalba (sixth (5:01.75).
Cady Barns went 16 feet 2 1/2 inches for second place behind Liverpool’s Marissa Baskin (16’9″) in the long jump, while in the triple jump Barns was third, going 35’1″ She also took fifth place in the 55-meter dash in 7.71 seconds to give her 16 individual points on the night.
Shepardson, Bansbach, O’Dell and Madsen were sixth in the 4×200 relay in 1:53.99. Grace Hausladen threw the shot put 25’10” and took seventh place.
Meanwhile, the F-M boys indoor track team gained 35 points to finish seventh among 10 teams in its sectional AA meet, just three points behind Rome Free Academy (38 points) in fourth place as Baldwinsville (107 points) edged Liverpool (100 points) and C-NS (96 points) to prevail.
Patrick Perry, posting a time of 9:37.86, was a close second to Liverpool’s Ty Brownlow (9:37.01) in the 3,200-meter run, with Joe Walters fourth in 10:00.77 as Ben Otis was sixth (10:04.54) and Matt Tripp (10:18,38) seventh. Perry added a fourth-place finish in the mile in 4:35.02, with Joe Walters eighth in 5:00.28.
Eric Coley made it to third place in the 300 in 37.45 seconds behind C-NS star Jeremiah Willis, who won in 36.74 seconds. Then, in the 4×200, Coley, Armando Adrian, Jacob Roberts and John Nethercott gained third place in 1:36.87, not far from B’ville’s winning 1:35.07.
Jack Duncanson went 2:43.11 to finish sixth in the 1,000 before helping Perry, John Meskos and Garrett Brennan finish fourth in the 4×800 relay in 8:32.86.
F-M also was seventh in the 4×400 as Brennan, Nethercott, Stefan Mina and Cole Goode posted 3:49.84. Romello Mitchell went 40’5 3/4″ in the triple jump for sixth place cleared 5’6″ for seventh place in the high jump as Ryan Kaczorowski (5’4″) finished ninth.
Jacob Rhea got seventh place (42’8 3/4″) in the shot put as Kaczorowski was ninth (18’10 1/2″) and Mitchell 11th (18’3″) in the long jump.
Many F-M athletes will return to SRC Arena next Wednesday to take part in the sectional state qualifying meet, with berths in the March 4 state championships at Staten Island’s Ocean Breeze Athletic Complex at stake.
