Sure, the formula is familiar – dominate distance races, snag some points elsewhere. But until it stops working, the Fayetteville-Manlius girls track and field team will keep using it, and keep winning, too.
The Hornets claimed yet another Section III Class AA championship Wednesday at Cicero-North Syracuse’s Bragman Stadium, earning 154 points to pull away from Liverpool (111.5 points) and Rome Free Academy (108 points), who waged a close battle for second place.
F-M began its distance-running sweep by having Sophie Ryan, Christy Berge’, Palmer Madsen and Phoebe White claim the 4×800 relay in nine minutes, 31.88 seconds, exactly 13 seconds ahead of runner-up Liverpool.
Then, in the 1,500-meter run, the Hornets went 1-2-3 as Ryan roared to a win in 4:39.19, with White second in 4:39.62 and Rebecca Walters third in 4:43.22. That produced 24 points, while the 400-meter dash saw Madsen get the victory in 58.54 seconds, with Ryan fourth in 1:00.27 and Susan Bansbach eighth.
In the 800-meter run, F-M had 26 more points from White getting the victory in 2:16.69, edging Rebecca Walters (2:19.92) at the line as Berge’ was third in 2:18.44 and Madsen got fifth place in 2:19.75.
Ryan returned to win the 3,000-meter run in 10:18.69 as Claire Walters was second in 10:25.35 and Alex Villalba (11:01.43) finished sixth. White, Madsen, Berge’ and Susan Bansbach went 4:03.39 in the 4×400 relay to top West Genesee (4:07 flat) and win again.
Cady Barns gave F-M a win in the field events thanks to a top triple jump of 37 feet 7 ½ inches, nearly two feet clear of Baldwinsville’s Lauren Addario (35’8 ¾”) in second place.
In the long jump, Barns was fourth, going 16’7”. Rebecca Walters was second (7:30.78) and Claire Walters third (7:35.93) in the 2,000-meter steeplechase, with Haleigh Pascual sixth in 7:52.41 and Villalba 10th.
Also for F-M, Sydney O’Dell was second (2,609 points) to RFA’s Tiffany Thomason (2,708 points) in the pentathlon. Gwenn Shepardson was third in the 400-meter hurdles in 1:08.23 and got to fourth place in the 100-meter hurdles in 15.93 seconds, also helping the Hornets finish ninth in the 4×100 relay in
Meanwhile, thanks to its own success in distance races, the F-M boys track managed to finish fourth at the sectional AA meet with 54 points, though far from host C-NS’s winning total of 130 points.
Patrick Perry was victorious in the mile, his time of 4:19.12 well clear of teammate Garrett Brennan, who was second in 4:26.18. In the 3,200-meter run, Joe Walters pulled away to win in 9:46.66, with Ben Otis getting second place in 9:56.95 as Matt Tripp (10:11.75) was fourth.
Returning in the 3,000-meter steeplechase, Perry got to second place in 9:53.84, just behind Liverpool’s Josh Hickmott (9:48.45) as Jack Boltman was fifth in 10:11.17 and Eli Capri got seventh place in 10:30.06.
Romello Mitchell tied for fourth in the high jump, clearing 5’10”. Brennan was sixth (2:02.36) and Nathan Reeves seventh (2:03.120 in the 800. Stefan Mina got seventh place in the 400 hurdles in 1:01.42, while Armando Adrian was ninth in the 400 sprint in 53.41 seconds, with John Nethercott 14th. Deion Travis was 11th and Ben Thomas 13th in the discus.
