Once more, a strong contingent of local indoor track and field athletes will vie for state championship honors.
The group that heads to Staten Island’s Ocean Breeze Athletic Complex on March 3, buoyed by a series of victories during Sunday’s Section III state qualifying meet at SRC Arena.
Jamesville-DeWitt pulled off a 1-2 sweep in the boys 300-meter dash. David Fikhman pulled away to win in 36.04 seconds as Mike Potamianos, in 37.20 seconds, held off West Genesee’s Esisas Brumfield (37.67) for the runner-up spot.
Fikhman and Potamianos returned in the 4×200 relay, helping Murad Amurlayev and Haberle Conlon post 1:33.40 to pull away from runner-up Henninger (1:36.10) by nearly three seconds.
Also qualifying for the state meet in the 4×400 relay, the Red Rams had John Roosa, Juan Smith, Joe Staples and Josh Duby finish in 3:50.05 for second place behind Baldwinsville’s winning 3:36.56.
Amurlayev, on his own, rose to third place in the long jump, going 21 feet 3 inches as Cicero-North Syracuse star Jeremiah Willis won with 23’5”. Alex Carbacio was fifth in the 55-meter hurdles in 8.40 seconds, matching his qualifying time as East Syracuse Minoa had Myles Riggins in eighth place in 8.52 seconds
Another sweep was pulled off in the 3,200-meter run by the Fayetteville-Manlius duo of Garrett Brennan and Geoff Howles as Brennan prevailed in 9:31.04, with Howles gaining second place in 9:54.69.
Brennan, Howles, Jack Duncanson and Max Perry went 8:22.47 in the 4×800 relay to finish fourth, while Ryan Serp was14th in 8.71 seconds.
Moving to the girls sectional state qualifier, J-D’s Alexandria Payne won the 55-meter hurdles in 8.45 seconds, just ahead of B’ville’s Adrianna Straughter (8.58) as F-M’s Gwenn Shepardson was third in 9.01 seconds.
In the high jump, Payne cleared 5 feet 1 inches to claim a jump-off with Cicero-North Syracuse’s Liliana Klemanski, while teammate Laeticcia Bazile was fifth with 4’10”.
Also, Payne was second in the 300 sprint in 42.77 seconds, just behind Baldwinsville’s Karen Ekure, who won in 42.55 seconds. F-M’s Cady Barns was fourth in 42.88 seconds.
Ana Dieroff nearly won the 600-meter run for the Rams, going 1:38.21, inches behind the winning 1:38.17 posted by West Genesee’s Carly Benson. Grace Bridge was ninth in 1:44.44.
F-M’s Phoebe White needed 2:58.66 to win the 1,000-meter run as Christian Brothers Academy senior Olivia Morganti finished third in 3:01.39. Then White, Rebecca Walters, Palmer Madsen and Sophie Ryan went 9:20.61 to dominate the 4×800.
Barns qualified for the state meet in the triple jump, venturing 36’6 ¾” to finish second behind Liverpool’s Marissa Baskin (36’9 ¾”). ESM’s Mia Montgomery was seventh with 35’4” as Barns was 10th in the long jump with 16’4” and Isabella Zuber was 17th, with the Rams’ Denise Yaeger sixth thanks to a leap fo 16’7 ¾”.
On her own, Ryan, in 9:57.04, was second to Tully star Brooke Rauber (9:46.83) in the 3,000-meter run, with Claire Walters third in 10:01.48 and Grace Kaercher seventh in 10:57.17 as J-D had Madeline Foss (11:00.21) in eighth place.
Alex Villalba (4:54.44) and Claire Walters (4:55.02) were fifth and sixth, respectively, in the 1,500-meter run as J-D’s Sophia Vinciguerra posted 5:23.53. The Rams’ Marianah Williams had a sixth-place shot put toss of 29’10 ½”.
