Each of the Fayetteville-Maniluls indoor track and field teams would climb to the top of the standings when they traveled to Utica College’s Hutton Dome for Friday’s fifth Mohawk Valley Indoor Track Association meet of the winter.
With 89 points, the boys Hornets held off Cazenovia (83.5 points) for the top spot after finishing second to the Lakers in the John Arcaro Memorial Invitational at SRC Arena six days earlier. F-M’s girls dominated the 23-team field, amassing 164 points.
In the boys 3,200-meter run, Geoff Howles beat the field in nine minutes, 34.82 seconds, with Ben Perry seventh. Then, in the 4×400 relay, the Hornets had Corey Gallagher, Ian Brown, Owen Snyder and Ben Hutz prevail in 3:39.79 to Remsen/Old Forge’s 3:41.66.
Going 1-2 at 1,600 meters, F-M had Sam Otis win in 4:29.15 and Peyton Geehrer finish second in 4:33.13, with Daniel Patrick eighth. Otis, Geehrer, Howles and Mark Hanlon paired up to win the 4×800 relay in 8:38.51.
Dan Sokolovic got the victory in the shot put thanks to a heave of 45 feet 3 1/2 inches, nearly a foot ahead of any other thrower. Gallagher rose to second place in the triple jump with a best leap of 39’8 1/2″. The Hornets also finished fifth in the 4×200 relay.
Meanwhile, in the girls meet, the winning included a clean sweep of the relays. Arianna Caron, Fiona Mejico, Elrose Hanlon and Samantha Pynn started it when they won the 4×400 in 4:18.10, more than six seconds ahead of the field.
Claire Walters, Hannah Kaercher, Grace Kaercher and Maddy Duggleby finished the 4×800 in 9:40.06 before a 4×200 where Mejico, Hanlon, Caron and Phoebe White went 1:51.52 to beat out Cazenovia’s 1:53.64.
Isabel Zuber, going 17′ 1/2″, won the long jump over Elina Cabrera’s second-place 15’9 1/2″ before Zuber took second place in the triple jump with 35’7″ as Cabrera finished sixth. F-M again went 1-2 in the high jump, Harper Stoppacher clearing 5’3″ and Katie Berge’ topping 4’10”.
Hannah Kaercher, in 10:04.17, prevailed at 3,000 meters with Grace Kaercher third in 10:22.68. Phoebe White went 3:00.55 to hold off Clinton’s Madison Luke (3:01.99) in the 1,000 as Debbie Lucchetti was third in 3:21.31 as Walters won the 1,500-meter run in 4:40.74, with Ani Sydorowych (5:13.90) edging Amelia Amack (5:14.13) for fifth place.
White got second place in the 300-meter dash in 43.17 seconds, ahead of Mejico (43.71) in third place as Maya McKenzie finished sixth. Natalee Barber was second in the 55-meter hurdles in 9.54 seconds, with Berge’ seventh. Duggleby took third place in the 600 in 1:47.05, with Wren Usiatynski topping 9 feet in the pole vault for fourth place.
