The second year of our Trackapalooza Invitational track meet was again a success, with glorious summer weather on the scenic Lansing High School track. Full results are now available on the FLRC website, along with some meet photos from runner Sarah Woodyear when she wasn’t competing. If you have any photos of the meet, please upload them to our community photo album to share with others and document the day.
The meet was 20% bigger than last year, with 172 athletes competing in 395 events, many from 5 teams, including the Groton Project Track Club, Baldwinsville Harriers Track Club, Kingston Tigers, North Penn-Mansfield, and the Tompkins County Pole Vault Club. The increase partly came from adding the pole vault, thanks to Matt Scheffler of the Tompkins County Pole Vault Club, and the high jump, managed by Steve Wagner of the SOAR Running Club. Those field events joined the long jump and triple jump, coordinated by Brett Shelton of the SOAR Running Club, and the shot put and discus, managed by volunteers from the Groton Project. Special thanks to Lansing High School for letting us use the track.
On to the results! We had exciting finishes in almost all the races, with the top two runners in the 100m, 200m, 400m, 800m, and 1600m separated by a cumulative total of 1.61 seconds, the top four teams finishing the 4x200m relay within 3 seconds, and the top two pole vaulters tying. I’ve never seen so many close finishes in an FLRC meet.
- 100m: Thanks to lots of younger kids, the 100m was the most popular event of the day, with 58 finishers. Andres Martinez claimed the win with an impressive time of 10.97 seconds, just slightly ahead of Joey McDonald of the Kingston Tigers in 11.08. (Post-race video confirmed that the first person across the line had jumped the gun.) Kristen Johnson of the Groton Project was the fastest woman in 13.56, followed by teammate Chloe Bishop in 14.38.
- 200m: The 200m finish was even closer than the 100m, with Quinn Sweet outleaning Andres Martinez 22.46 to 22.53. Anneliese Hubbard took the crown for the women with a time of 27.21, besting Megan Snell, who crossed in 29.40.
- 400m: Despite the longer distance, the 400m was nearly as close as the shorter sprints, with Nathan Glidden of the Baldwinsville Harriers running 51.73 to beat his teammate Christopher Zellar, who came through in 52.08. The top 11 runners all broke 60 seconds! For the women, Megan Snell crossed the line first in 1:07.80, one place ahead of trail runner Donna Langerfeld, who set a PR by running 1:09.65.
- 800m: The 800m looked like a foregone conclusion, with Riki Sampson of the Cornell Track & Field Club leading throughout. However, local distance standout Lucas Baker unleashed a ferocious kick and closed to within 1 second before running out of room at the line. Sampson won in 2:00, with Baker second in 2:01. After her second place in the 400m, Donna Langerfeld doubled in the 800m, taking the women’s title in 2:31, with Reagan Burnham of Dryden High second in 2:39.
- 1600m: The 1600m also offered plenty of excitement, with Will Boscia of Ithaca High (who placed high in the state in the 800m for freshman boys) leading through three laps before former Hartshorne Masters Mile rabbit Mik Kern took the lead. But Boscia fought back in the final 100 meters to outlean Kern at the line: 4:54.5 to 4:54.6. On the women’s side, Liz Hartman repeated her Trackapalooza win from 2023 with a 5:45, with Emily Jones second in 6:20.
- 5000m: The 5000m looked like a two-person race until ex-Ithaca High runner Alexander Simpson broke away from eventual second-place finisher Joe Anderson. Simpson ended up running an impressive 15:46, a personal record, to Anderson’s 16:25. Sarah Woodyear took the win for the women in 19:30.
- 4x200m Relay: In the final running event of the day, 14 teams competed in the 4-by-200m relay, laying down some impressive times. The Kingston Tigers won in 1:35.9—the fastest relay time of FLRC’s 2024 meets—followed closely by the Baldwinsville Harriers in 1:37.4. But it was far from a two-team race, with the Groton Project A team coming across third just one second later in 1:38.4 and an ad hoc Trackapalooza team fourth in 1:38.9.
- Long Jump: The most popular of the field events was the long jump, with 42 athletes scoring. The jump of the day went to Logan Manor of the Kingston Tigers, who cleared 19-10.25, well beyond the second-place tied jumps of 19-02 from teammate Joey McDonald and the Groton Project’s Westin Walker. For the women, Kristen Johnson of the Groton Project jumped 15-05 to place first, followed by Lola Douglas at 12-11.
- Triple Jump: The hop-skip-and-jump triple jump was limited to experienced jumpers, with Tom Pinkowski of the Groton Project clearing 39-08.75 for the win and Logan Manor of the Kingston Tigers placing second with a 37-11 jump. Kristen Johnson of the Groton Project claimed her third first-place finish for the day with a jump of 34-04.75, while Anneliese Hubbard jumped 30-00.25 for second.
- Discus: In the discus throw, Brody Williams threw 124-09 for the win, with David Shea of the Groton Project second with a throw of 114-04. The women’s competition was a nail-biter, with Kaylee Kastenhuber throwing 85-10 for the win, with Tuuli Overturf just 2 inches behind in 85-08.
- Shot Put: In the shot put, the Groton Project’s David Shea improved on his second place in the discus, claiming the win by heaving the shot 40-08 to surpass Leander Boreland’s 35-05. Tuuli Overturf also avenged her second-place result discus with a winning shot put toss of 26-01, proving to be the only person of the day who could beat the Groton Project’s Kristen Johnson, who threw 25-09 for second.
- High Jump: Although the high jump didn’t attract as many athletes as it did indoors this year, Joey McDonald of the Kingston Tigers won it with an impressive 6-02 jump that tied the season’s top height and bested Hunter Heyden, who cleared 6-00. Lola Douglas jumped 4-06 to win for the women, beating Rose Johnson’s 3-04 jump.
- Pole Vault: In our inaugural pole vault competition, Dominic Mikula and Moss Dengler cleared 15-06 to tie for the win, a foot above second place Gabe Snyder, who vaulted 14-06. On the women’s side, Alyssa Kelleher made over 10-00 even to claim the win, with Evelyn Jackson in second in 9-06.
As always, FLRC track meets are the work of numerous volunteers. Thanks to Tonya Engst for helping prepare for the meet the day before and then managing bib pickup, ably assisted by Rebecca Lambert and Lauren Milano. FLRC equipment manager Gary McCheyne was also a big help by renting a truck and bringing FLRC tents, tables, and chairs to the meet, and Carl Franck, Alan Lockett, Kacey Strang, and Laura Taylor helped with setup. Former FLRC president Tom Rishel reprised his traditional role of starter in the hot sun, Patrick Boyle conducted everyone as head timer, Jesse Koennecke and Dave Kania reseeded heats and produced results, and Bob Talda and Rich Bernstein coordinated the heats. Laurel Gilmer counted laps and recorded bib numbers for the longer races, and we had lane timing assistance from Keith Eggleston, Carl Franck, Tristan Lambert, Verity Platt, Amalia Skilton, and Kathleen Sullivan. On the field event side, Ricky Stewart assisted Brett Shelton with the long and triple jumps, Jamie Loehr helped Steve Wagner with the high jump, Ted McCrone helped Matt Scheffler with the pole vault, and Kacey Strang helped the Groton Project team with the throws.
Trackapalooza is our final track meet for 2024, but we hope to see you indoors in 2025!