by Reggie Henderson

Two more shortened meets.  But I should congratulate the organizers for so carefully scheduling the whole indoor season to spread out and alternate all competitive opportunities, by schools, by venues, by genders, by events, by order of events,  they’ve made a science out of distributing everything evenly and in the fairest possible manner.

So… I’m figuring that with the RIT Tiger Invite tomorrow, the top competitors would be holding back or skipping altogether tonight. But… there were plenty of outstanding performances.

Meet 1 (DEF):

We started out the season with Amanda Burkey of Fairport and Taylor Hudson of Victor setting the leading mark of 5-6 in the Girls High Jump FOR ALL OF NEW YORK STATE.  But this was followed by a couple lesser performances in December and Burkey hasn’t even competed in the High Jump for all of January.  Meanwhile statewide there are now about 4 more girls who have matched the 5-6 and 4 more girls after that have exceeded it.  But… Hudson popped a 5-8 tonight which gets her back up to 2^nd in the state (and she has the top long jump in Section V).

Sophomore Madeline Kopp of Spencerport came out of nowhere (previous 300M best was 45.05) and crushed the field by 3 seconds and set a new Section V leading mark in the Girls 300M Dash of 41.77.

Lauren Burke of Fairport crushed the 600M Dash field by even more (5 ½ seconds), and made a new leading mark for Section V with a 1:38.72.

Emily Renna of Fairport took over the Section V lead in the Girls Triple Jump with a huge 36-10.75 which is the first time that a Section V girls triple jumper has exceeded the state and national elite standards this season (and she qualified for Penn Relays).

The boys 55M Dash is getting even more crowded at the top with Eric Ziegler of Spencerport running a 6.59 and Ismail El-amin of Wilson Magnet a 6.61.  Now there are 6 guys between 6.58 and 6.62.  Can’t wait to watch this at State Q’s!

Jailen Person of East Irondequoit reasserted his dominance in a very strong year for Section V boys triple jumpers with a 46-6.

Meet 2 (ABC): 

Shaylyn Tuite of Pittsford Mendon ran an amazing  4:39.95 in the 1500M to not only take over the Section V lead in the 1500M from  Leila Mantilla of Penfield, but to take over the 1^st spot on the New York State Leaderboard!   And… the best Girls Indoor 1500M time in the whole United States for this year (but… it seems that the 1600M is more popular nationwide, and if you convert her time to a 1600M then it comes in at about 16^th in the U.S.)  Tuite will be missed tomorrow when they run the McMullen
Mile.

Tom Green of Aquinas improved his Section V leading 55M Hurdles time to 7.80.

Garrett Boehmer of Aquinas became the 4^th boys pole vaulter to make the state standard of 13-0.

by Reggie Henderson

Another week of 2 quick meets, this time at RIT, greatly reduced numbers of races and field events.  But… all the relays were run and there were some extremely close finishes where the winning teams not only won, but also set season leading marks for Section V.

Meet 1 (Groups ABC)

In Section V’s strongest relay race on a statewide rankings basis Webster Thomas Girls 4 x 800M team ran a new Section V leading time of 9:55.16 and had a very close win over Pittsford Mendon at 9:55.75 with both teams moving ahead of the former leader Penfield on the Section V leaderboard and both teams beating the Penn Relays qualifying time of 10:00.00.

The same two schools repeated in the Girls 4 x 400M team where Webster Thomas just edged out last week’s performance by Wayland Cohocton for a new Section V leading time of 4:17.50.  Pittsford Mendon also broke the Penn Relays qualifying standard of 4:20 with their 2^nd place time of 4:18.11.

Hilton and Edison Tech’s Boys 4 x 400M relay teams had a photo finish at 3:35.24 to 3:35.60 which both beat Aquinas’s leading time of 3:35.77.

Winsome Hudson of Aquinas long jumped 16-9 to just barely take over the lead from Taylor Hudson of Victor’s jump of 16-8.25 from last week.

Cory Cox of East clobbered the first competition by almost 3 feet, but his 22-9.75 came up an inch and a half short of his own Section V leading season best.

Meet 2  (Groups DEF)

I guess girls run fast late at night because all three girls relay winners set new Section V season best times.

In the Girls 4 x 200M Spencerport left everyone else in the dust, (including former 4 x 200 leader Aquinas who competed in Meet 1), with their 1:50.73.

Then in the Girls 4 x 400M Fairport came out and beat Webster Thomas’s leading time done in Meet 1 with their new leading time of 4:14.13.

Finally Penfield Girls 4 x 800M did not let Webster Thomas enjoy their lead for more than a couple hours when they blazed a 9:45.51 which was an improvement of 10 seconds over their leading time from last week and nearly 10 seconds better than Webster Thomas’ time from earlier in the evening.   Their time reaffirmed them as the best relay team of any gender or distance on the state leaderboard from Section V and they are ranked 12^th in the state, just 2.51 seconds off of the Milesplit US First Team Elite standard of 9:43.

For the boys relays, the 4 x 400M relay board got even more crowded at the top as Fairport won with a 3:35.41 which slips them into 2^nd place on the leaderboard which looks like this:

Hilton 3:35.24, Fairport 3:35.41, Edison Tech 3:35.60, Aquinas 3:35.77

That’s right, 4 teams within 0.5 second of each other.  What a race is coming up at State Q’s!

In the boys 4 x 800M Rush Henrietta crushed the competition and improved their season leading mark to 8:16.47 which puts them within 1.47 of qualifying for Penn Relays.

In the field events, Taylor Hudson of Victor did not let stand Winsome Hudson of Aquinas’ new leading Girls Long Jump mark from earlier in the evening, as Taylor busted out the first 17+ jump of Section V this season with a 17-2.25 which makes the state standard.

The Boys High Jump had the strongest field of the season.  Jayvon Larkin of Wilson Magnet had only made 6-1 this season and that was over a month ago, but tonight he cleared 6-4, unfortunately for him, Joe Postwaite of Gates Chili matched his own Section V leading mark of 6-4 and beat Larkin in a jump-off for first.  Tyler Ventrillo of Wayne jumped 6 INCHES over his previous season best to join the crowded 6-2 club while tying with Chris Reape of Brighton for 3^rd.  With 20 guys in the state at 6-2, and only 14 guys higher than that, this event may need to consider going by ½ inches.

Erica Williams of Batavia just missed her season leading mark of 38-7.5 but she crushed the field by over 5 feet in the second meet with her throw of 38-6.

So… next Friday is the last regular league meet, another abbreviated session like tonight’s.  Then Sat. Jan. 29^th is the RIT Tiger Invite.  A high quality meet as exemplified by the boys 10-0 and girls 7-9 starting heights in the pole vault (as compared to 8-6 and 6-6 at the Southern Tier Invite held earlier this month at Cornell).  Then we’re on to Sectional Championships the third week of February.

by Reggie Henderson

A couple quick meets at Geneva with one event per person and only boys pole vault and only girls high jump.  The summary will also be brief.  This week I’m just looking for new Section V season bests.

We had our first sub 4:30 1600M from the boys, by M.J. Erb of Victor who ran a 4:28.89 to win the morning session.

Leila Mantilla of Penfield improved her Section V leading time in the 1500M to 4:43.31, so she still holds on to the leads in two events, this and the 3000M.

Sophomore Brian Smith of Greece Athena matched Wilson Magnet’s Donavan Wallace’s RWTL best time of 6.58 in the 55M.  Does having the spikes screwed in make you go faster?  That could be part of the reason that Edison Tech’s Darien Johnson blazed a 6.54 at the USATF meet in December versus his own 6.62 best in RWTL meets.  Anyway, the 55M race will be one to watch at State Q’s with 6 guys between 6.58 and 6.67, (and everyone will be wearing spikes!).

They didn’t beat Jailen Person of East Irondequoit’s leading triple jump of 46-7.75, but Ismail El-amin of Wilson Magnet and Joe Postwaite of Gates-Chile put up the 2^nd and 3^rd best jumps of this incredible season in the event with 45-9.5 and 45-9 respectively.  Their 2^nd and 3^rd best in Section V jumps, are the 8^th and 9^th best in the whole state for this season.

Alana McDonald of Rush Henrietta came within 3 tenths of a second to Maggie Pryslak of Mercy’s Section V leading time in the 600M when she ran a 1:41.27 Monday.

Elizabeth Wilkins of Penfield didn’t quite dethrone Rachael Tylock of Penfield in the 1500M RW, but she came very close with a 7:12.74, she’s only ½ a second behind Tylock’s Section V leading mark which puts Wilkins at 4^th in the state.

by Reggie Henderson

We’re only in two groups now, and entry standards have been introduced.  This weekend was at Hobart & William Smith Colleges in Geneva.

This week one thing I’m looking for New York State Rankings of 20^th or better (based on what was recorded on milesplit.com prior to this weekend).  In other words, who might be in striking distance of medaling at the state meet.

The other thing I’m looking for is if any of Leila Mantilla’s leading marks in her 4 events is challenged.  It’s like she has 4 targets on her back and the rest of the Section V runners are after her.  And attack they did!  On Friday night Maggie Pryslak of Mercy ran a 1:40.97 to take over the leading spot in the 600.  This mark ranks Maggie 23^rd in the state.  Then on Saturday in the 1000 Meter Shaylyn Tuite of Pittsford Mendon ran a 3:01.25 which puts her at 2^nd on the state leader board for the event, and she was followed by SOPHOMORE Valarie Palermo of Webster Schroeder who ran a 3:02.12 for 4^th best in the state.  They pushed Mantilla down to 3^rd in Section V and 11^th in the state.  1000M looks like a strong event for Section V girls.  Mantilla was able to keep the lead in the 3000M, no one touched it, not even Mantilla herself, but she did win the event Friday night with a 10:24.46.  And the 1500M was not run this weekend.

On to the other top performers:

Shawn Henderson of Brighton made the National Elite Standard and qualified for Penn Relays with a 14-4 in the pole vault which ranks him 3^rd in the state.   Chester Palozzi of Gates-Chili joined Mitch Nguyen of Penfield at 2^nd highest in Section V with his 13’ jump to win on Saturday which makes the state standard and puts them in a many-way tie for 12^th in the state.

Rachel Tylock and Penfield continued to dominate the Racewalk.  Rachel Tylock raced a 7:12.23 to win Friday night which moves her from 5^th to 3^rd on the state list.

Jailen Person of East Irondequoit had a double win Friday night taking the triple jump with a new Section V leading 46-7.75 which ranks him 4^th in the state.  Person also won the long jump of 22-1.75 which ties him for 9^th in the state.  Nice job Jailen!  On Saturday Eric Ziegler of Spencerport nudged out Cory Cox of East in the long jump, 21-11.5 to 21-10.75 (those officials have to do some precise measuring).

Section V has 4 of the top 10 triple jumpers in the state, and 4 of the top 15 long jumpers.

In Section V this winter, if you could come out and triple jump 45’, you would only be the 5^th best and you better be ready to jump 22’ if you want to represent Section V at states in the long jump.

D&C Athlete of the Week Joe Postewaite of Gates-Chili posted a 6-3 in the High Jump, he leads a pack of 5 other guys who have made 6-2 including new member Phillip Longo of Dansville who made 6-2 on Friday night and came in 2^nd by misses to Chris Reape of Brighton.  Postwaite also won the triple jump on Saturday, but his winning jump of 44-4.75 is only the 6^th best in Section V for this big year in the triple jump.

Kymberle Gordon of Canandaigua won the shot put Friday night with a 38-01 which makes the state standard and puts her at 7^th on the state list, (and she had a nice picture in the D&C last Sunday!).   In the first week’s report I missed the fact that in Week #1 Erica Williams of Batavia opened the indoor season with a big throw of 38-7.5 which leads Section V and is 6^th in the state.  (I’m going to include my e-mail at the bottom so people can send me corrections).  And… it turns out that Erica Williams is a double threat as she won the shot put with a 34-10 AND the 55M with a 7.50 on Saturday.

Tom Green of Aquinas blazed a 7.84 in the 55M Hurdles which made the state standard, leads Section V and ranks him 7^th in the state.

On Friday night Karmen Auble of Warsaw pole vaulted 10’9” (which would be 7^th in the state, but Karmen’s already ranked 3^rd) And Eden Wondra of Perry vaulted 10’ to reaffirm her spot in a tie for 11^th in the state.  On Saturday Haley Christiano of Hilton won the vault by over 2 feet with another 10’6” jump.  Christiano’s been very consistent with 3 weeks in a row of clearing 10’6” and just missing 11’.  I’m sure her 11 is coming!  Penn Relays standard is 10’6 and Auble, Bell and Christiano have all made it.

Andrew Pirnie of Hilton sprinted to a 1:23.80 to win the 600M on Saturday for the leading time in Section V and 10^th best in the state.  His time also beat the state standard and National Elite Standard.

AJ Nasello of Webster Schroeder won the 1000M on Saturday with a new Section V leading time of 2:36.18 which is 12^th best in the state and a National Elite Standard time.

Emily Renna of Fairport ran a 8.65 in the 55M Hurdles to make the state standard and become ranked 13^thin the state.

Brian Smith, sophomore from Greece Athena matched his season best time of 6.63 in the 55M to win Friday night which keeps him at 3^rd in Section V and 16^th in the state.  Smith was a double winner Friday night, also winning the 300M in 36.01 for the leading time in Section V and 17^th on the state list, beating Ismail El-amin of Wilson Magnet in a photo finish at 36.02 for 18^th in the state.

Danielle Potter of Dansville won the girls triple jump Friday night with a Section V leading 35-10.75 jump which puts her at 17^th on the state list and qualifies her for the Penn Relays.

Finally, the relays.  Here’s the top relay teams and what they rank in the state.

The Penfield girls 4 x 800M relay’s performance of 9:56.39 last Saturday at RIT is the only relay team of any distance or gender from Section V to make the National Elite Standard and at 14^th they are the highest ranked in the state.  Their time also qualifies them for the Penn Relays.

The Rush Henrietta boys 4 x 800M had the big performance of Week 5 with their 8:23.39 at Hobart on Friday night which puts them at 23^rd in the state.

The Wilson Magnet and East boys 4 x 200M relay are both within a whisper of the National Elite Standard of 1:34.40.  Last week at RIT on Friday East blazed a 1:34.69 which ranks 30^th in the state, but then on Saturday Wilson answered with a 1:34.61 which is ranked 29^th.  This should be a good race to watch at State Q’s.

Another good race will be Aquinas versus Spencerport in the girls 4 x 200M relay.  Over the break Aquinas ran a 1:50.75 to rank 30^th in the state, then last week at RIT Spencerport ran a 1:50.85 for the 31^st spot.

Aquinas also has the top spot in the boys 4 x 400M relay with a 3:35.77 which ranks them statewide at 55, and qualifies them for the Penn Relays.

And the Wayland Cohocton girls 4 x 400M relay is also ranked 55 with their 4:17.69 from Friday night which qualifies them for the Penn Relays.

Correction from last week: State Standard marks can be made anytime from the first meet of the season back on Dec. 8^th, 2010.

Feel free to send any other corrections or comments to me at  This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.