Section V Winter Track League Roundup after Week #2
By Reggie Henderson
After two weeks of Section V Winter League Track everyone has had the opportunity to use 2 out of the 3 venues ( RIT, Hobart, U of R), and some of our athletes are at or near the top of the New York State Leaderboard. The following athletes have achieved National Elite Status as defined by the Milesplit US First and Second Team Elite standards or have performances among the top 10 best in New York State so far this winter.
The big story in Section V Winter League Track is the success of the girls in the vertical jumps. In the Girls High Jump sophomore Amanda Burkey of Fairport and senior Taylor Hudson of Victor are two of the four girls in the state sharing the number one spot at a First Team Standard exceeding height of 5-6. And Victoria Shaffer of Rush Henrietta is at 7th with a 5-4.
The Girls Pole Vault has only 2 athletes in the state meeting the National Elite Standard of 11-0 at this point in the season, but Section V has 4 girls in the top 10 with freshmen Karmen Auble of Warsaw leading the way at 10-7 for 3rd (Auble is currently number 1 in the nation among freshmen girls in the pole vault). Haley Christiano of Hilton and Nicole Bell of Gates-Chili are tied for 5th with jumps of 10-3, and Eden Wondra of Perry is in a tie for 10th with her jump of 10-0.
In the Boys Pole Vault although Shawn Henderson of Brighton is a couple inches away from the National Elite Standard so far this winter, his jump of 14-1 at the meet at RIT on Dec 10th is the 3rd best in the state.
Cory Cox of East and Joe Postwaite of Gates Chili have both achieved the First Team Standard in the Boys Long Jump. Cox has the 2nd best jump in the state with a 22-11.25 jump at U of R on Dec 11th and Postwaite has the 5th best in the state with a 22-4 at U of R on Dec. 10th. Cox is also First Team in the Triple Jump with a 45-2.5 jump on Dec 17th at RIT which is currently the 6th best in the state. Postwaite is also in a tie for 11th best in the state in the High Jump along with Taylor Byrne of Aquinas and Chris Reape of Brighton who have all jumped 6-2 this winter (National Elite Standard is 6-5).
Section V’s distance runners are lead by Robert Hurlbut of McQuaid Jesuit who is number 4 in the state for the 3200M with a 9:39.07 which he ran at RIT on Dec. 17th, and Leila Mantilla of Penfield is First Team Elite in the 3000M and 6th in the state with her time of 10:18.75 at Hobart on Dec 18th. Also in the 3000M we have Cassie Goodman of Midlakes with a 10:51.02 on Dec 18th at Hobart for 17th in the state.
The sprinters are lead by Shawn Charles of Greece Olympia who ran the 55M in 6.60 on Dec 18th at U of R for the 8th best in the state so far. In the 300 Meter dash, Section V has both a boy and girl achieving the National Elite Standard. Ismail El-amin, a junior at Wilson, ran the Boys 300 in 36.40 on Dec 10th at RIT for the 21st best time so far this year in New York, and Camaria Long, a junior at Aquinas, ran the Girls 300 in 43.93 and is 31st in the state.
Finally for the throwers we have Kymberle Gordon of Canandaigua, who has not achieved the National Elite Standard of 39-00 in the Girls Shot Put, but her throw of 37-5 is 8th best in the state so far.