Of all the honors accumulated by Fayetteville-Manlius runners at the state and national levels through the years, one of the biggest was achieved early on Thursday evening by a quartet of girls track and field Hornets.
Phoebe White, Fiona Mejico, Susan Bansbach and Claire Walters paired up to win the girls distance medley relay in the 125th edition of the Penn Relays.
Born in 1895, a year before the first modern Olympics were contested, the Penn Relays is the nation’s oldest, and arguably most prestigious, large-scale track and field meet.
Held at the University of Pennsylvania’s Franklin Field in Philadelphia, it draws more than 15,000 athletes each year from the high school and college ranks in the United States and beyond for 300-plus races and field events.
Many Central New York high school athletes have taken part in the Penn Relays through the years, and F-M had raced here before, winning this same race in 2011.
The Hornets were part of one of two featured races on Thursday, officially titled the High School Girls Distance Medley Championship of America. The field included 18 teams from five states, with F-M joined by other New York State entratns such as Saratoga Springs, North Rockland and Niskayuna.
Running the first leg of 1,200 meters, White went three minutes. 40.27 seconds, which put the Hornets in eighth place. Then Mejico ran her 400-meter leg in 1:00.41 to help F-M move up toward the front.
Bansbach had the third leg of 800 meters and went 2:21.27, which left Walters to run the anchor 1,600 meters and still pass several runners in front of her.
Going 4:43.34, Walters made her way past the rest of the field, including Beavercreek (Ohio), and the Hornets finished in 11:45.28, nearly four seconds ahead of Beavercreek’s 11:49.14. Saratoga was third in 11:49.79.
Also at the Penn Relays, East Syracuse Minoa had its girls team take part in the 4×100 relay. Lailani Carrion, Rylie King, Kaleigh Maloof and Sophie Hartz finished in a season-best 51.55 seconds. Tully star Brooke Rauber won the 3,000-meter run in 9:34.21.
When F-M took part in Friday’s Chittenango Invitational, the girls Hornets earned 66.2 points, second only to Liverpool (107 points) as Jamesville-DeWitt was fifth in the boys event, two spots ahead of the Hornets.
F-M swept both of the steeplechase races. In the boys 3,000, it was Peyton Geehrer winning in 9:51.21, the only time under 10 minutes, while in the girls 2,000 Walters, less than 24 hours removed from her win at the Penn Relays, prevailed in 6:57.03, beating the field by more than 16 seconds.
Bansbach also won twice in as many days, going 1:02.19 in the 400 sprint to beat out Cicero-North Syracuse’s Hannah Boyle (1:03.02) for the top spot. Harter Stoppacher tied for third in the high jump, clearing 4 feet 4 inches.
Then White prevailed in the 800 in 2:20.03, more than 14 seconds ahead of a field that included Bishop Grimes’ Sophia Hatton getting third place in 2:35.25 over J-D’s Amelia Gilbert (2:37.39).
In the full-field mile, Chloe Bullough, in 5:36.25, prevailed over teammate Emily Cook, who posted 5:42.21. Isabel Zuber went 36’2” to finish second in the triple jump, with Samantha Pynn fifth and J-D’s Denise Yaeger fourth with 34’4”.
The F-M boys got a victory from Ryan Serp in the five-event pentathlon. Serp’s total of 2,695 points was 140 points ahead of Sodus’s Will Lamar at day’s end. Dan Sokolovic was fifth in the shot put with a toss of 42’5”.
In the featured Fleet Feet Mile, Matt Tripp finished in 4:33.57, second to Liverpool’s Nathan Reeves (4:27.67), with Nolan Chiles fourth in 4:36.03 and Sam Otis sixth in 4:39.90. J-D’s Sophia Vinciguerra was fourth in the girls Fleet Feet Mile in 5:34.78.
Meanwhile, Christian Brothers Academy senior Cory Knox won the girls pentathlon, accumulating 2,281 points, well clear of South Jefferson’s Madison Neukirch (2,036) as F-M’s Katie Berge’ was fourth with 1,997 points.
J-D’s boys had Fidel Martinez go 51.88 seconds to win the 400-meter dash, more than a second ahead of the field, while in the discus James Richer’s throw of 136’1” beat out Liverpool star Antwan Kelly (135’11) by two inches.
Nick Dekaney finish third in the 110 hurdles in 16 seconds flat, with Haberle Conlon third in the 100 sprint in 11.55 seconds. The Rams were fifth in the 4×100 as Caleb Smith got sixth place in the boys long jump and CBA’s Beatrice Gugol was fifth in the girls long jump.
On the girls side, J-D’s Madeline Foss got fourth place in the 3,000-meter run, while Monica Hernandez-Olivera was fifth in the 100 hurdles in 17.14 seconds, with the Rams sixth in the 4×100.
