Section V Winter Track League Update Week #3
By Reggie Henderson
The third week of Section V Winter League Track was held on Dec. 29th at RIT and Hobart and here are the outstanding performances:
The big story of week #3 is Leila Mantilla of Penfield who ran two National Elite Standard mid-distance times in one meet! She ran a 4:44.61 in the 1500M which just edged out Shaylyn Tuite’s 4:45.67 from week 1 and just missed the state leader Emily De La Bruyere of NYC’s time of 4:44.30. Mantilla also ran a 3:04.39 1000M which puts her at 6th in the state for that distance, a nice match for her 6th in the state performance in the 3000M last week. BUT… while Mantilla was away from the 3000M, Shaylyn Tuite of Pittsford Mendon moved closer to her in the 3000M with a 8th best in the state time of 10:26.25. And Cassie Goodman of Midlakes improved her 3000M season best to 10:47.25.
Not to be outdone, the boys have a 3-event National Standard performer in Cory Cox! Cox achieved National Elite Standards in the LJ and TJ in the first two weeks and this week ran a National Standard time of 36.61 to win the 300M at Hobart.
Donovan Wallace of Wilson Magnet ran a 6.58 55M for a new top performance in Section V edging out Olympia’s Shawn Charles 6.60 from last week. This also puts Wallace at number 8 on the state list.
Brian Smith of Olympia was right on the heels of both Cox in the 300M and Wallace in the 55M when he beat the National Elite Standard of 36.64 in the 300M with his 36.59 and just missed the 55M standard of 6.62 with his time of 6.63.
Joe Postwaite broke out of the pack in the Boys High Jump with a Section V leading win of 6-4 which puts him in a 5-way tie for 3rd best in the state.
In the Girls Pole Vault Nicole Bell of Gates Chili and Haley Christiano of Hilton continued to match each other’s performance as both raised their season best to 10’6” which moves them up to 4th on the state leaderboard and only 1 inch behind Karmen Auble of Warsaw.
Zac Ekdahl of Marcus Whitman joined National Elite status with his winning time of 1:26.63 in the 600M at Hobart.
Lauren Burke of Fairport made the standard in the Girls 300M with her Section V leading time of 42.48 at Hobart.
Erica Williams of Batavia grabbed the Section V leading performance in the Women’s Shot Put from Canadaigua’s Kymberle Gordon with her winning throw of 37-9.25.
Somehow neglected from the week #2 report were the Racewalkers (I think milesplit may not have been updated). Penfield is THE DOMINANT FORCE in New York State for the Girls 1500M Racewalk with 3 of the top 6 performances, and 2 of them from one family! Rachel and 8th Grader Melissa Tylock hold spots 3 and 5 respectively, Elizabeth Wilkins is 6th, and to round out Section V Jaymee Caplan of Rush Henrietta has the 7th best performance in the state. NOW FOR Week #3: Wilkins edged out Melissa Tylock for the win and for 5th position in the state in a photo finish race at Hobart. In the same race Penfield added a 4th girl to the New York State top 10 list when Julianna Moore ran a 7:46.73.