VERONA – Given their strong resumes, Westhill junior Drew O’Reilly and West Genesee senior Peter McMahon both expected to make serious pushes during last Saturday’s New York State Public High School Athletic Association championships.
On the same Vernon-Verona-Sherrill course where the Section III meet was held a week earlier, O’Reilly, the individual sectional Class C champion, would record a top-five individual state finish.
Amid cold, windy conditions that contrasted the warm sunshine of the sectional meet, O’Reilly needed just 17 minutes, 6.1 seconds, which beat his sectional time of 17:34 flat by nearly half a minute.
And it wasn’t far behind the second-place time of 16:59.9 by Rye Neck’s Joseph Lavelle as he, and everyone else, trailied the winning 16:36.6 from Fonda-Fultonville’s Bennett Melita.
Only one other Section III runner, Hannibal’s Noah Melita, finished in the individual top 20, making his way to 19th place in 17:48.6 as Section III finished sixth out of 11 sections in the team portion.
An hour later, McMahon took his turn, projected to finish just outside the individual top 10 in the tough Class A state championship race.
Having gone 16:38.6 in the sectional meet, McMahon, amid the cooler temperatures and mud, would not be as quick. Still, his 16:48.7 resulted in a 16th-place finish amid a field of 108 and qualified him for this weekend’s state Federation championships at Bowdoin Park.
And it was Baldwinsville’s Solomon Holden-Betts who emerged victorious, his 16:06.9 the best time of the state meet and edging Arlington’s Ethan Green (16:09.1) and atoning for a runner-up finish to Fayetteville-Manlius’ Nolan McGinn by one-tenth of a second at the sectional meet. McGinn was sixth here (16:16.2) as Hornets teammate Anthony Otis was fourth in 16:14.1.
Another local runner, Skaneateles freshman Lucy Fleckenstein, made her debut at the state meet in the individual portion of the girls Class C race.
And Fleckenstein did quite well, her time of 21:35.8 nearly 10 seconds better than the 21:45.6 she had at the sectional meet and putting her 44th in a field of 129 runners. Allegany-Limestone’s Angelina Napoleon repeated as state champion with a clocking of 18:14.1.
