STATEN ISLAND – With the intention of brining home a full case of medals, stars of three area indoor track and field teams went to Staten Island’s Ocean Breeze complex for Saturday’s New York State Public High School Athletic Association championships.
East Syracuse Minoa brought Jay-Neil McDuffie to the state meet, where he expected to contend in both the 55-meter hurdles and long jump.
And the 55 hurdles would go well. McDuffie’s time of 7.58 seconds improved upon his 7.71 from the season and put him in the finals, where in 7.62 he rose all the way to fifth place as his Section III teammate, Corcoran’s Tawakal Omar, earned the state title, winning in 7.37 to the 7.41 from Fairport’ Jordon Quinn.
Having gone 22’1 3/4” in the long jump during the season, McDuffie would have his best leap of 20’4 3/4” in his third attempt, ultimately taking 18th place as Midlakes’ Aiden Bryant won with 23’5 3/4”.
Of them, no one did better than Jamesville-DeWitt thrower Kenna Ridzi, who reached the medal podium. Ridzi looked to improve on a weight throw of 44 feet 3 ½ inches and a shot put of 36’11 3/4”.
Ridzi did set a new career mark in the weight throw, going 45’1 1/4” to gain ninth place overall and eighth in the public-school division as Nanuet’s Gabriella Vizcarrondo won with 52’7 3/4”.
Moving to the shot put, Ridzi again would take ninth place. Though her best throw of 36’2” on her first attempt didn’t quite reach what she had done in the regular season, Ridzi still had a seventh-place NYSPHSAA finish, with Miller Place’s Jillian Scully taking the state title by throwing it 42’11 1/2”.
Elsewhere for J-D, Victoria Payne went 8.86 seconds in the 55-meter hurdles, unable to reach the finals, while the boys Red Rams’ 4×400 relay team of Shane Garguilo, Brayden Rivera, Ben Kenna and Will Westpfal were 18th in 3:35.45.
Fayetteville-Manlius stars Nolan McGinn and Izzie Sullivan were in two distance races apiece – McGinn in the boys 1,600 and 3,200-meter events, Sullivan in the girls 1,500 and 3,000.
McGinn’s time of 9:16.70 in the 3,200 set a new personal mark and put him 14th overall, 10th among public-school runners, before he ran the 1,600 and posted 4:26.74 to finish 26th overall.
As for Sullivan, she went 4:46.60 in the 1,500 and made her way to 17th place overall, improving upon her 24th-place finish in the 3,000 in 10:24.80 as Maria Khalifeh also ran for F-M, in the 1,000-meter event, and was 26th in 3:06.56.
