Whatever the season, Fayetteville-Manlius runners expect to bring home state championships – and the winter was no exception.
The Hornets’ 4×800 relay quartet of Palmer Madsen, Phoebe White, Sophie Ryan and Rebecca Walters delivered another state indoor track title for the Hornets Saturday at Staten Island’s Ocean Breeze Athletic Complex.
Steady running by Madsen, White and Ryan gave Walters a lead to work with in the anchor leg, and she delivered with a two minutes, 13.672 split to pull away from Niskayuna’s anchor, Amelia Kokernak.
In a finishing time of 9:10.89, F-M topped Niskayuna (9:14.99) by more than four seconds, and that was not the only state title F-M was a part of.
Cady Barns ran with Eva Borton (Clinton), Camryn Stone (Central Valley Academy) and Gianna Capoccia (Rome Free Academy) for Section III as they won the distance medley relay in 10:16.91, more than three seconds clear of Section II (10:19.96) at the line. Barns also had a 14th-place finish in the triple jump, going 34 feet 11 ¼ inches.
F-M had its runners earn medals elsewhere, too, starting with Ryan getting fourth place in the 3,000-meter run in 9:47.32 and Claire Walters taking fifth place in 9:58.79. Tully’s Brooke Rauber was second in 9:44.71 as Saratoga Springs’ Kelsey Chmiel won in a state meet-record 9:27.88.
White made it to fifth place in the 1,000-meter run in 2:51.29 as Christian Brothers Academy senior Olivia Morganti was 14th in 2:59.36 and Ursuline’s Lily Flynn won in a meet-record 2:51.29.
Jamesville-DeWitt saw its top girls athlete, Alexandria Payne, get seventh place in the high jump, clearing 5’4” as Dunkirk/Silver Creek’s Emilee Hanlon won with 5’7”.
Payne also got 12th place in the 55-meter hurdles, her qualifying time of 8.58 seconds just missing out on the finals as it took 8.41seconds to get there. The Red Rams’ Ana Dieroff was 18th in the 600-meter run in 1:38.73.
Moving to the boys state meet, J-D’s David Fikhman was the second-fastest qualifier in the 300-meter dash, going 35.15 seconds to reach the final, where in 35.39 seconds he took eighth place as Tahje Flemmings won in 34.10 seconds.
Combined, Fikhman, Murad Amurlayev, Haberle Conlon and Mike Potamianos got a time of 1:31.48 to qualify for the finals of the 4×200 relay and then took sixth-place honors with 1:33.61. Cornwall won in a meet-record 1:29.50.
F-M’s Garrett Brennan nabbed a fourth-place finish in the 3,200-meter run in 9:15.79, not far from the winning 9:13.72 by Saratoga Springs’ Shea Weilbaker.
Brennan’s teammate, Geoff Howles, was 17th in 9:35.89, and they joined West Genesee’s Esisas Brumfield and Homer’s Teddy Mercer for a sixth-place Section III effort in the distance medley relay in 9:03.95.
