With all team activity complete for the winter, area indoor track and field athletes could now focus on what individual honors they could claim, at the state and national level.
That national designation meant something to Skaneateles senior Kyla Palmer, who set a new Section III record in the 600-meter run when she competed Feb. 11 in the 115th annual Millrose Games at New York City’s Nike Track and Field Center at the Armory.
Posting a time of one minute, 34.39 seconds, Palmer broke the previous mark of 1:34.55 that Fayetteville-Manlius’ Heather Martin established 12 years earlier.
Nationally, it put Palmer fourth in this race as Florida’s Michelle Smith won in 1:29.52, but it still gave Palmer lots of confidence heading into last Wednesday’s Section III state qualifying meet at SRC Arena.
And Palmer would win here, too, going 1:35.62 to beat the top large-school time of 1:36.71 from Jamesville-DeWitt’s Nikki Militi and then also prevail in the 300-meter dash in 40.97 to the 41.73 from Cicero-North Syracuse’ Marissa Doty.
Meanwhile, in the boys shot put the Lakers’ Will Feeney led all small-school competitors, heaving it 45 feet 7 inches, which only Auburn standout Dustin Swartwood (52’3”) topped as Feeney was sixth in the weight throw with 54”11 1/2”. Alice Spaulding was seventh in the girls weight throw with 38’5 3/4”.
West Genesee got wins here, too, from the 4×200 relay team of Dom Burris, Dylan Frost, Rhison Williams and Chris Moser, who in 1:32.91 pulled away from runner-up C-NS’s 1:35.38.
Later, in the 1,000-meter run, freshman Michael Gomes prevailed in 2:39.67, edging Waterville’s Logan Baker (2:40.58) and reaching the state meet.
Claire Griffin, Mya Rufus, Grace McInerney and Molly Doran took third for the girls Wildcats in the 4×200 relay in 1:50.24, with Griffin fourth in the 600 in 1:43.75. Griffin, Peyton Long, Andrea Conklin and Zoe Maupin were second in the 4×800 in 9:54.61.
Gomes, Payton Manipole, Anthony Edgar and Logan Scott were fourth in the 4×400 relay in 3:35.78 as Marcellus had Andrew McCaffrey, Joe Striffler, Paul Swenson and Xander Szalach fifth in 3:38.17 to go with the girls Mustangs’ Bailey Ellis finishing fifth (31’4 3/4”) in the shot put.
Burris went 6.59 seconds for third place in the 55-meter dash, inches behind the winning 6.56 from Cicero-North Syracuse’s Davine Bennett. Kev Scott took seventh in the 300 in 37.66 as Burris added a third-place long jump of 21’5 3/4”.
Westhill had Ashley Bolesh qualify for the state meet with her second-place time of 2:59.59 in the 1,000-meter run, where Long was sixth in 3:09.57.
Kate Bendall get fifth place in the 55-meter hurdles in a season-best 8.96 seconds as the Warriors were seventh in the 4×200 in 1:55.26 and Isabel Leonardo was seventh (34’3”) in the triple jump.
On the boys side, Westhill’s Drew O’Reilly was third in the boys 3,200-meter runin 9:45.29, with WG’s Kevin Moser eighth in 10:05.86. The Warriors were sixth in the 4×800 in 9:00.98 as Carter Buckman topped 11 feet in the pole vault for fourth place.
