When the New York State Public High School Athletic Association indoor track and field championships take place March 7 at Staten Island’s Ocean Breeze Athletic Complex, Fayetteville-Manilus will be well-represented.
Buoyed again by its distance runners on the girls and boys sides, the Hornets will expect to contend for plenty of medals in the wake of Tuesday’s Section III state qualifying meet at SRC Arena.
Claire Walters, in nine minutes, 51.08, rolled to the girls 3,000-meter title over her future North Carolina State teammate, Liverpool’s Jenna Schulz (10:06.08) as Hannah Kaercher was fourth in 10:33.98.
Walters, Phoebe White, Grace Kaercher and Fiona Mejico went 9:30.36 to prevail in the 4×800 relay. In the 4×400, White, Kaercher, Mejico and Arianna Caron won in 4:05.50, well clear of the 4:12.78 from runner-up Westhill.
Yet another F-M win came in the high jump from Harper Stoppacher, who cleared 5 feet 3 inches with fewer misses than Liverpool’s Amina Sinclair. Jamesville-DeWitt’s Laeticcia Bazile was third, clearing 5’1”.
White was second (1:40.70) to Cicero-North Syracuse’s Kate Putman (1:38.54) in the 600-meter run. Wren Usiatynski cleared 9 feet to finish fifth in the pole vault. Maddy Duggleby was fourth in the 1,000-meter run in 3:06.38, with Isabel Zuber seventh in the long jump going 16’1 ¼”.
Sam Otis won for the F-M boys in the 3,200-meter run, going 9:23.18 as teammate Peyton Geehrer was second in 9:30.05, also advancing to the state meet, with Geoff Howles third in 9:46.49.
And the Hornets won the 4×400 when Corey Gallagher, Ben Hutz, Owen Snyder and Ian Brown tore to a time of 3:37.24, beating out runner-up West Genesee (3:40.58) and the field.
F-M’s Dan Sokolovic qualified for the state meet in the weight throw thanks to a top attempt of 53’11 3/4” on his second throw, which put him fourth overall.
In the shot put, Sokolovic threw 49’2 1/4”, second only to the 50’2 3/4” from Rome Free Academy’s Billie Mays as J-D’s James Richer finished fourth, going 45’6 1/4” to go with an 11th in the weight throw.
J-D’s boys team had Joe Staples advance to the state meet in the 55-meter dash when he qualified for the final in 6.59 seconds, eventually getting third place in the final in 6.64 seconds as Utica Proctor’s Damien Allen (6.48) won.
Staples, Nick Dekaney, Josh Duby and Haberle Conlon gained fifth place in the 4×200 relay in 1:37.11 as Kaleel Boykins took fifth in the 1,000 in 2:43.19 and Duby was fifth in the 300-meter dash in 37.72 seconds.
Boykins, Sam Smith, Ahviere Reese and Josh Hillers grabbed third place in the 4×800 in 8:36.14, with Caleb Smith sixth in the long jump by going 20’5 1/2”.
For the J-D girls, Rainer Yaeger had a strong showing in the triple jump, her 33’11 3/4” putting her in fifth place to go with a ninth (15’7 1/2”) in the long jump.
Monica Hernandez was 11th in the 55 hurdles in 9.52 seconds, just ahead of F-M’s Natalee Barber (9.68) in 12th place. Hernandez helped the Rams finish seventh in the 4×200 relay in 1:53.56 as F-M (1:51.37) was fifth, Eva Wisniewski taking 13th place in the pole vault.
East Syracuse Minoa had Rocky El rise to fourth place in the triple jump with a best attempt of 42’5” as Michael Hasty get sixth place in the weight throw with 50’11”.
Michael Parks was fifth n the 55 hurdles, going 8.14 seconds in the finals after qualifying in 8.08 as Rocky El was seventh (8.10) and just missed out on advancing to the finals, as did J-D’s Nick Dekaney (8.11) in eighth place. The Spartans’ Rhiannon Butchko cleared 5 feet in the girls high jump to finish seventh.
Christian Brothers Academy featured a victory from Joel Gaffney in the boys 600, Gaffney going 1:25.03 to advance to the state meet and edge Baldwinsville’s Connor Waldron (1:25.54) for individual honors. Michael McMahon was eighth in the 3,200 in 10:37.17.
