With a Section III record already in her possession, Fayetteville-Manlius girls indoor track and field runner Sophie Ryan sought to add another honor when she competed in last Saturday’s New York State Public High School Athletic Association championships at Staten Island’s Ocean Breeze Athletic Center.
As it turned out, though, Ryan’s best chance came not by herself, but with teammates Christy Berge’, Phoebe White and Palmer Madsen in the 4×800 relay. There, F-M roared to a time of nine minutes, 8.49 seconds that beat everyone except Shenendehowa, whose winning 9:00.34 forced the Hornets to settle for second-place medals.
Ryan looked to build upon her sectional-record mark of 4:29.12 that made her the second-fastest qualifier behind Corning’s Jessica Lawson. It didn’t quite happen, as Ryan finished in 4:31.59 and finished fourth, again with Lawson out front as she won in 4:25.66.
White earned her own medal in the 1,000-meter run. Having gone 2;55.11 during the season, White improved to 2:54.63 and got fifth place, not far from the winning 2:50.15 earned by Bronxville’s Kaitlin Ryan. Christian Brothers Academy’s Olivia Morganti also ran in the 1,000 and was 29th in 3:09.86.
Moving to the 3,000-meter run, another F-M star medaled as Claire Walters, in 10:02.08, nearly matched her season-best 10:01.09 and got to sixth place, while Jamesville-DeWitt star Hannah Butler was 19th in 10:28.77. Saratoga Springs’ Kelsey Chmiel pulled away to win in 9:26.28, nearly half a minute ahead of the field.
Cady Barns was part of the long jump, looking to improve up on her best leap of 17 feet 3 ½ inches, but only got 16’4 ¾” and finished 23rd, well off the winning 20’7” posted by Rush-Henrietta’s Lanae-Tava Thomas.
East Syracuse Minoa’s Mia Montgomery, competing in the triple jump, had quite a strong effort, finishing 12th overall by going 35’5 ¾”. Cicero-North Syracuse’s Shayla Webb was fifth with 37’ ¾” as Westhampton Beach’s Sarena Choi won with 39’6 ¼”.
Moving to the boys edition of the state meet, F-M had Patrick Perry and Joe Walters both take part in the 3,200-meter run. Entering the meet as the fourth-fastest qualifier in 9:23.29, Perry would improve to 9:20.32 and finish fifth, right behind Liverpool’s Ty Brownlow (9:18.41) in fourth place as Walters was 20th in 9:36.76.
Walters was also in the distance medley relay, claiming a medal as he paired with Josh Farmer (New Hartford), Shaheed Basher-Dickerson (Nottingham) and Grant Stokoe (Homer) for a time of 8:54.38 to get third place, just behinds runner-up Section I (8:53.78) as Section XI won in 8:44.73. s
F-M’s Eric Coley was part of the 300-meter dash, joined by J-D’s David Fikhman. But it was Fikhman faring best as he got 14th place in 35.98 seconds, while Coley was 23rd in 36.51 seconds. South Shore’s Ramone Newland was victorious in 34.06 seconds.
As for ESM’s Isaiah Brooks, he took part in the 55-meter hurdles, where he had qualified for the state meet in 7.88 seconds, but could only manage 8.11 seconds here, finishing 21st. C-NS’s Joe Williams was seventh in 7.73 seconds as Archbishop Malloy’s Oluwatomide Alao won in 7.40 seconds.
