Within the newly formulated Salt City Athletic Conference Metro division, it didn’t take long for the Fayetteville-Manlius track and field teams to engage in some big-time battles.
The Hornets went up against Cicero-North Syracuse and Nottingham in last Wednesday’s season opener at C-NS’s Bragman Stadium, the same venue where the state championship meet will take place June 8-9.
F-M swept the girls meet, prevailing over the Northstars 79-58 while also handling the Bulldogs 105-26, led by Sophia Ryan, who swept all three distance races.
Ryan claimed the 1,500-meter run in four minutes, 43.37 seconds to edge teammate Claire Walters (4:45.24) before taking the 800-meter run in 2:24.34 over Phoebe White (2:24.57) and then running 3,000 meters in 10:35.29.
White did take the 400-meter hurdles in 1:08.98, with Gwenn Shepardson second as she won the 100-meter hurdles in 17.19 seconds. Palmer Madsen held off White, 1:01.39 to 1:01.55, in the 400-meter dash and went 27.34 seconds to win the 200-meter dash.
Not only that, but Madsen, White, Walters and Susan Bansbach ran legs in the winning 4×400 (4:22.42) and 4×800 (10:32.44) relays, while Cady Barns had a winning long jump of 16 feet 7 inches.
The F-M boys beat Nottingham 87-44 but lost to C-NS 84-57, seeing Garrett Brennan gain wins in the 800 in 2:037.4 and the mile, where his time of 4:41.30 held off Geoff Howles’ 4:42.93.
Howles claimed the 3,200-meter run in 10:08.77 over Sam Otis (10:10.86) and helped Brennan, Matt Tripp and Max Perry win the 4×800 in 8:44.03. Romello Mitchell topped 5’10” in the high jump to match C-NS’s Judah Bailey.
Jon Nethercott (53.73 seconds) and Armando Adrian (54.26) went 1-2 in the 400 sprint and helped the Hornets win the 4×400 in 3:48.82. as Sawyer Dereszynski won the discus with a heave of 114’5”. C-NS star Jeremiah Willis won five events – the 100 and 200 sprints, 400 hurdles, long jump and triple jump.
As that went on, Jamesville-DeWitt rolled past Cortland 124-16 in the boys season opener where Joey Armenta and David Fikhman both ran the 100 sprint in 11.8 seconds, but Armenta won the 200 in 23.6 seconds and Fikhman took the 400 in 53 seconds flat.
James Richer swept the throwing events, going 109’4” in the discus and 35’4 ¼” in the shot put. Donovan Coughlin had a top long jump of 18’1 ¾” as Marcus Johnson went 39’8” in the triple jump.
Takuya LaClair cleared 5’5” in the high jump as Ben Virgo, Bagaza Yves and Gerrit VanVraken all topped 8 feet in the pole vault. Alex Carbacio won the 110 hurdles in 17.1 seconds, with Sabri Hafizuddin claiming the 400 hurdles in 1:04.4.
Christian Brothers Academy was swept by Cazenovia last Wednesday at Buckley-Volo Field by scores of 113-28 on the girls side and 105-36 on the boys side.
Avion Othman won two boys sprints for the Brothers, going 11.3 seconds in the 100 and 23.6 seconds in the 200. Dan Melvin (2:14.8) and Riley Nash (2:20.7) went 1-2 in the 800 as Joel Gaffney won the 400 sprint in 55.9 seconds.
One bright moment for CBA in the girls meet came in the 3,000, where Olivia Morganti prevailed in 10:53.7 and Bri Pucci was second in 11:24.2. Cory Knox was second in the 1,500 in 5:13.4 as Anna Langlois was second in the 100 (13.5 seconds) and 200 (28.9 seconds).
Bishop Grimes took part in a four-way meet with Tully, DeRuyter and Cincinnatus, and while the Black Knights won most of the events on both sides, the Cobras’ Wenjing Chen won the girls triple jump with a top effort of 29’5 ¼”.
Meanwhile, the Grimes boys beat Cincinnatus 51-50, with Nate Gay (12.6 seconds) and Ian Denton (12.9) going 1-2 in the 100 sprint. Deng Mawien won the 400 sprint in 58.5 seconds as Gay cleared 5’8” in the high jump.
