While the venue changed, the goals for local indoor track and field athletes for last Saturday’s Section III state qualifying meet was the same – do well enough to advance to the March 4 state championships at Staten Island’s Ocean Breeze Athletic Center.
Originally, the meet was set for last Wednesday at SRC Arena, but weather concerns caused a postponement – and a move to Utica College’s Hutton Dome, which had hosted Mohawk Valley Indoor Track Association meets this winter along with league and Section III Class B and C/D championships.
The Utica venue provided yet another showcase for the Fayetteville-Manlius distance runners, including Phoebe White, who zoomed to victory in the 1,000-meter run in two minutes, 55.11 seconds as Christian Brothers Academy freshman Olivia Morganti finished in 3:01 flat, taking third place and also reaching the state meet.
Sophie Ryan took her turn in the 1,500-meter run, where she holds the sectional record of 4:29.10 set back on Jan. 20. Here, she didn’t quite reach that time, but in 4:31.36 she beat the field by more than 20 seconds as Jamesville-DeWitt saw Sophia Vinciguerra finish seventh in 5:04.41.
White and Ryan were together in the 4×800 relay, joined by Christy Berge’ and Palmer Madsen as F-M finished in 9:15.49, nearly a full minute ahead of Clinton, who finished second in 10:12.78.
In the 3,000-meter run, Claire Walters won in 10:01.09, more than 20 seconds faster than the qualifying standard as she edged out Clinton’s Eva Borton (10:01.13) by four-hundredths of a second. J-D’s Hannah Butler was third in 10:15.55 and also reached the state meet as Rebecca Walters (10:40.24) was fourth for the Hornets. Cady Barns took third place in the long jump, going 16 feet 4 ½ inches.
Moving to the boys side, F-M’s Patrick Perry was victorious in the 3,200-meter run, going 9:23.29 to zoom past the state qualifying standard of 9:42.24, while Joe Walters was third in 9:33.65 and J-D’s Patrick Dye, who finished fifth in 9:37.77, joined Perry and Walters in advancing to Staten Island.
David Fikhman gave J-D a victory in the boys 300-meter dash, prevailing in 35.80 seconds over F-M’s Eric Coley, whose 36.39 seconds also beat the state qualifying standard of 36.74 as the Red Rams’ Mike Potamianos got fourth place in 37.22 seconds.
Fihkman, paired with Potamianos, Murad Amurlayev and Mike Bradford, finished second (1:34.91) to Cicero-North Syracuse (1:32.80) in the 4×200 relay. Amurlayev went from there to a seventh-place finish in the long jump, going 19’8”.
In the 55-meter hurdles, East Syracuse Minoa standout Isaiah Brooks qualified second for the finals in 8.06 seconds, with Bradford fifth in 8.43 seconds. Once in the final, Brooks improved to 7.88 seconds and, by doing so, beat the state qualifying standard of 7.94, so he’s going to Staten Island with C-NS’s Joe Williams, who won in 7.66 seconds as Bradford (8.81 seconds) finished seventh.
As for the Spartans’ Mia Montgomery, she contended in the girls triple jump, with her best attempt of 35’8” topping everyone except C-NS star Shayla Webb, who won the event with 37’ ½”.
J-D had its girls 4×200 relay team of Sarah Hildreth, Denise Yaeger, Ailish McDevitt and Eva Wisniewski finished third in 1:53.48. Gabrielle Tanksley topped 9’6” for fourth place in the girls pole vault as Alex Le tied for sixth in the boys pole vault, clearing 11 feet. ESM’s Jennah Ferrari tied for 11th in the high jump.
