We closed out our winter indoor track season with a smaller, relaxing meet that showcased some fabulous races and times. The March meet is often a bit smaller because high school kids are done with their indoor season and taking some downtime before outdoor track starts. But we still drew nine teams, including collegiate running clubs from Binghamton, Buffalo, and Syracuse, plus two from Cornell, in addition to our regular youth teams: the Auburn Pulsars, GIAC Navigators, SOAR Running Club, and Candor CSD Running Club. Nasty morning driving conditions, daylight saving time, and illnesses making the rounds also hurt attendance a bit, but we still had 143 runners and 289 entries across four individual races and a relay. Scroll down for full results.

With everyone having been forced to wake up an hour earlier than normal, it wasn’t surprising that our fast 3000m heat started out as a tactical race, with a big clump of runners sticking together through a slow first mile. Then it started to break up, with Cornell grad student Sam Lagasse, Joshua Lacey and Kody Parrot from the University of Buffalo, and the Cornell Running Club’s Ethan Seltzer pulling away from the pack. Lagasse ended up throwing down a ferocious kick to claim the victory in 9:20, with Lacey coming in second in 9:31. For the women, Cornell’s Krista Scibisz beat 14-year-old Bethany Lorenzo of the Auburn Pulsars, 12:08 to 12:26.

Next we moved into the 60m, and after a bunch of munchkin heats with runners as young as 4, the University of Buffalo’s Nicholas Abdo won in 6.9 seconds, beating Candor’s Lance Jensen and five other runners who were in the 7.3 second range. The women’s title went to 12-year-old Makenna Keough of the SOAR Running Club, just a hair ahead of Raquel Morehouse of the Cornell Track and Field Club, both in 9.1 seconds.

In the 200m, Nicholas Abdo and Lance Jensen repeated their places, with Abdo taking the win in 23.2 second and Jensen taking second in 24.0. On the women’s side, Buffalo’s Yuleiny Fernandez cruised through the tape in 29.1 seconds, followed by 11-year-old Maggie Houp of SOAR in 30.7 seconds.

The mile race was the most popular and most competitive, with all the runners in the fastest heat seeding themselves at under 4:50. The race didn’t disappoint, with numerous lead changes that ended with the Cornell Running Club’s Oliver Rapp kicking hard in the final lap to beat James Felice, 4:35 to 4:39. The winner of the women’s race was never in question, with national masters mile champion and Hartshorne Masters Mile winner Sascha Scott coming down from Syracuse to get some competition from men since there are few women of any age, and almost no masters runners, who can run with her. Despite feeling lousy in her warmup and getting tangled at the start, Sascha ran even splits and moved up strongly in the final laps of her race to lay down a 4:54.1, her fastest time of the year and one of the fastest mile times by a 40-44 woman in the world. The next fastest woman was 20-year-old Gabriella Dunkelberg in 5:45 that just outpaced an impressive 5:46 by 43-year-old Richarda Ericson.

Finally, the University of Buffalo runners ran a strong 4x200m relay to win handily in 1:37, beating a tough Candor team that came through in 1:44.

Huge thanks go to the many volunteers who made this and the other indoor meets run so smoothly. We consistently receive compliments from coaches and runners about how our meets are among the best run anywhere, and that’s a testament to our dedicated volunteer team. Jullien Flynn coordinates all entries, seeding, and results in the Meet Manager app. Josh Brockner was once again our head timer. Tom Rishel served as starter, working with good humor through a cranky starter’s pistol. Adam Pacheck managed the finish line with help from Truck Rossiter. Tonya Engst and Jesse Koennecke wrangled registration and bib pickup (and then both went out and ran PRs in the mile). As clerks-of-course, Bill Watson and Becca Lovenheim arranged runners into heats, with help from Ellie Pell. Aaron Proujansky did backup timing and lap counting, and Carl Franck set up the PA system and helped out in numerous places. Thanks to each and every one of you for making FLRC’s track meets such a success!

See you outdoors on Lansing High School’s track on June 18th!