CICERO – Though a host of area high school girls track and field athletes are bound for next week’s New York State Public High School Athletic Association championships at Middletown, most of them still got in one more competition at home.
It was the Section III state qualifier held Thursday at Cicero-North Syracuse’s Bragman Stadium, where Jamesville-DeWitt in Class B and Fayetteville-Manlius in Class A put together some winning efforts.
Leading the Red Rams, Skylar Vaught unleashed a discus throw of 137 feet 4 inches to warm up for the state meet, with teammate Udo Okereke (84’7”) in sixth place. Vaught also won the shot put with 38’10” as Okereke finished fourth with a toss of 30’7”.
Ellyana Deng also earned a victory in the long jump soaring 18’8 1/2’ to edge the 18’6 1/2” of Syracuse ITC’s Layla Owens, while Deng also was second in the 110 hurdles in 17.44 seconds.
J-D also had Amariyah McClinton second in the Class B pentathlon, her 2,321 points only trailing the 2,453 from South Jefferson eighth-grader Jenna Lawlee. Kaitlyn Cohen tied for fifth in the pole vault clearing 7’6” as Brielle Rivera was seventh and Helena Sofinski finished eighth.
F-M’s lone win came from Izzie Sullivan in the 3,000-meter run. With her time of 9:42.32 Sullivan announced her status as a medal favorite for the state meet as East Syracuse Minoa had Rachael Burt sixth in 10:42.78. Also for the Hornets, Michelle Ifeonu got sixth place in the discus with a throw of 92 feet.
ESM’s Elise Mancini contended in the pole vault, her clearance of 9 feet beating everyone except Central Square’s Aubrey Greene, who prevailed topping 10 feet. Amber Hayes earned fourth place in the 400 hurdles posting 1:06.85 and took fifth in the 100 hurdles in 14.93 seconds.
Madelyn Copp was fifth in the pentathlon with 2,209 points as Abigail Burt, Claire Lavelle, Isla Ellerton and Sofia Pliger got third in the 4×800 relay in 10:32.84, an event where F-M already had the time it needed for the state meet.
Christian Brothers Academy got its 4×100 relay team into the Class C state meet as Neveah Bacheyie, Emily Dalton, Sakura Dotterer and Liana Thomas posted 50.62 seconds for second place to Pulaski (48.97) but beating the qualifying standard of 50.64 by two-hundredths of a second. Ava LaValle added a seventh in the 2,000 steeplechase in 8:18.81.
Bishop Grimes competed one more time and Tehlia Hosea finished fourth in the Class C 100-meter dash in 12.75 seconds and Riley Abernethy fourth in the 400 sprint in 1:01.45 Grimes also had Abernethy, Hosea, Amaya Jones and Bailee Halsey take seventh place in the 4×100 relay in 52.31 seconds.
