Our second track meet of 2024 was once again a big success, with 199 athletes and numerous spectators. This month, 12 teams competed, and we racked up 427 event participations. Full results are available on the FLRC website, and we have photos in our public album from Abigail Silva and Jay Hubisz—contribute yours too! (Photos below each event writeup are from those events, but not necessarily of the people mentioned.)
We kicked off the meet with a tough race—25 laps for the 5000m. That didn’t stop it from being wildly popular, though, with 61 finishers across three heats. That’s almost twice as many as ran the 3000m in January. In the final heat, 40-year-old Sam Morse of the Syracuse Track Club and 16-year-old Riley Hubisz of the Ithaca Running Club set a sizzling pace, running together through 22 laps at sub-5:00 splits. In the end, age won out, with Morse pulling away slightly to cross first in an astonishingly fast 15:14, with Hubisz second in 15:22, almost a minute ahead of third place. On the women’s side, 14-year-old Lauren Kosek also ran an impressive race, laying down a 19:20 to beat 37-year-old Donna Langerfeld of the Genesee Valley Harriers, who finished in 19:29. Third place went to 50-year-old Heather Webster, also of GVH, in a strong 20:01.
In the racewalking sub-competition, Team USA’s Erin Talcott won in 28:47 after pacing 15-year-old Madison Tuttle for much of the race—she finished second in 29:03, with 14-year-old Madigan White third in 31:29.
Switching from long to short, we moved into 12 heats of the 60m, where Kyren Young of Watkins Glen took the top spot with a 7.09, beating Tyler Burke and Edson Jean-Baptiste of Morrisville State College and Ryan Haisler of the Cornell Track & Field Club, whose times ranged from 7.28 to 7.32, too close to call for hand timing. Our top woman was Erica Chiang of the Cornell Track & Field Club, whose 8.23 was almost a second ahead of the 9.10 from 14-year-old Carolyn Cherwinski. The first heat was once again cute beyond belief, and we decided that when you’re just 1 year old, as was Amedeo Bisogni, you’re allowed to have aerial assistance from your mother.
Given that we’d gone long with the 5000m, we traded our traditional mile for the 800m and were treated to some super exciting races. In the final heat, Isaac Mazzeo kicked hard to beat Lucas Baker by less than a second, 2:01.04 to 2:01.65, with Riki Sampson of the Cornell Track & Field Club just another second back in 2:02.79. The women’s race could have been equally as exciting, but Eliza Derito of the Ithaca Running Club wasn’t in the same heat as Ella Whiffen of the Cornell Running Club, with both clocking 2:27. Kudos also to Jesslynn Lewis of the SOAR Running Club, who racewalked the 800m in 5:07.
The final individual running event of the day was the 200m, where Kyren Young of Watkins Glen took his second win for the day in 23.36, ahead of Edson Jean-Baptiste of Morrisville State College in 23.52, Riki Sampson of the Cornell Track & Field Club in 24.25, and Tyler Burke of Morrisville State College in 24.44. On the women’s side, Erica Chiang of the Cornell Running Club also doubled for the day, winning in 29.11, beating 15-year-old Gretchen Hulsey, who came through in 31.62.
Throughout the meet, Brett Shelton of the SOAR Running Club managed the long jump, with 45 athletes completing a jump. The top two spots for the men went to Merritt Cox of the Cornell Track & Field Club and Tristin Weeks of the Groton Project, both of whom recorded jumps of 17 feet, 11 inches. The women’s competition also saw a distance tie, with Megan Wong of the Cornell Track & Field Club and Makenna Keough both jumping 15 feet, 4 inches.
The same thing happened in the high jump, managed by SOAR’s Steve Wagner. Max Paciorek and Nick Spoto, both of the Cornell Track & Field Club, cleared 5 feet, 8 inches for the men, and for the women, both Makenna Keough and Gretchen Hulsey jumped 4 feet even. All told, 21 athletes cleared the bar.
The last event of the day was the 4x200m relay, with 18 teams across three heats. Cornell Track & Field Club teams took first and third in 1:39 and 1:42, with Morrisville State College placing second in 1:42. All told, six teams went under 2:00.
The meet went smoothly, and we appreciated all the kind words from runners and coaches. Tonya Engst, Carl Franck, Damian Clemons, Jamie Loehr, Jean-Luc Jannink, and Michelle Woods arrived early to help set up. Tonya continued to run the registration desk and answer questions with Rebecca Lambert. Tom Rishel reprised his traditional role as our starter, Patrick Boyle added to his experience as head timer, and Heather Cobb and Rich Bernstein managed the heats. Laurel Gilmer and Dave Kania kept HyTek Meet Manager running smoothly for results, Molly Doruska recorded bibs for longer races, and Truck Rossiter counted laps and ran the backup timer. Our sprint timing team was Jon Lewis, Truck Rossiter, Ruth Sproul, Molly Doruska, Tristan Lambert, Kate McCormick, and Anne Shakespeare. Special thanks to Steve Wagner of the SOAR Running Club for managing the high jumps with the able assistance of Kathleen Sullivan and to Brett Shelton of SOAR for the long jump, assisted by Ted Boscia, Tim Tucker, and Maren Golden.
Sign up for FLRC’s next track meet on March 10, when we’ll go old school with both the 2-mile and a 1-mile, plus a bonus 400m. Hope to see you there!