Most of Central New York’s top track and field athletes made their way to Cicero-North Syracuse’s Bragman Stadium on Friday to take part in Section III’s state championship meet open qualifier.
And though many local stars already had secured spots in next weekend’s state meet at Middletown, they still aimed for victories here and looked to improve on previous efforts this spring.
Fayetteville-Manlius started out by having its girls 4×800 relay team of Susan Bansbach, Grace Kaercher, Phoebe White and Claire Walters go nine minutes, 7.73 seconds, more than 12 seconds faster than the 9:20.45 it had entering the qualifier.
Bansbach won twice more, again taking the 400-meter dash in 57.52 seconds after she helped White, Fiona Mejico and Bella Milliti go 4:01.64 in the 4×400 relay to hold off C-NS (4:03.15) and win the 4×400 relay.
White claimed the 800-meter run in 2:16.81 over Liverpool’s Windsor Ardner (2:21.31), while Walters pulled away to take the 1,500-meter run in 4:42.72 (she’s run 4:34.96 this spring) as Amelia Amack was third in 4:59.73 and Chloe Bullough (5:01.08) was fourth.
Eighth-grader Hannah Kaercher got second place in the 3,000-meter run in 10:32.30, with Emily Cook getting fifth place in 10:57.56.
On the boys side, F-M’s Sam Otis was victorious in the 3,200-meter run, going 9:23.53 to beat out Beaver River’s Colton Kempney (9:27.62) in the overall race. Nolan Chiles ran the boys mile in 4:23.06, just behind the 4:21.38 from Liverpool’s Nathan Reeves.
Ryan Serp finished second in the Division I pentathlon with 3,004 points, just 26 points behind Carthage’s Tom Albright. Ani Sydorowych was fifth in the girls 2,000-meter steeplehase.
East Syracuse Minoa had Myles Riggins win the boys 110 high hurdles, going 15.53 seconds to edge C-NS’s Isaiah Wright (15.55) for the top spot, while Julia Perrotta cleared 9’6″ to win the girls pole vault, beating out the 9 feet cleared by Maria Markert.
Eljiah Buck threw the shot put 46 feet 8 1/4 inches, just behind the 46’11” from C-NS’s Andrew Culver, and also finished second in the discus. The Spartans were also fifth in the 4×100 relay in 44.59 seconds.
In girls action, ESM’s 4×100 side of Lailani Carrion, Rylie King, Kaleigh Maloof and Sophie Hartz set yet another school record, finishing fourth in 50.42 seconds. Carrion also finished sixth in the 400 sprint in 1:02.64 as Sara Bourdon threw the discus 92’5″ to get sixth place.
Jamesville-DeWitt had Laeticcia Bazile clear 5’3″ in the girls Division I high jump, tying Liverpool’s Amina Sinclair, but Sinclair had fewer misses, so Bazile settled for second place.
James Richer finished third in the shot put with a toss of 45 feet. Monica Hernandez-Olivera was fifth in the 100 hurdles in 16.99 seconds, with Denise Yaeger eighth in the long jump.
Christian Brothers Academy competed in Division II (small schools), where it won three different events, including the boys 4×800, where Dan Melvin, Zach Medicis, Caleb Krueger and Joel Gaffney went 8:08.46 to pull away from runner-up Oriskany (8:15.74) and the field.
Olivia Morganti, already qualified for the state meet in the girls steeplechase with her 6:58.51, finished in 7:05.44, second to the 6:47.40 from Tully superstar Brooke Rauber. Skye Ryan was seventh in the shot put, with Beatrice Gurgol ninth in the long jump.
Bishop Grimes had Sophia Hatton make it to third place in the Division II 1,500-meter run in 4:50.68 and also finish fifth in the 800-meter run in 2:23.73. The Cobras’ Nate Gay was fourth in the boys long jump with 20’9 1/4″.
