NORWICH – The 12th annual REK Friends Forever Invitational started with the 100 meter memorial walk with all competitors following family members and friends of the three girls the meet honors every year. Following the completion of the walk, the first event was shortly underway.
Seven schools from Chenango County, along with eight schools from the surrounding areas, brought to the track and field athletes to Norwich for the annual event.
The track and field event at the Norwich facility started with sunshine and warm temperatures but the gusts of winds indicated something was coming.
The first half of the meet kicked off with the girls and boys of the 4x100 meter relay.
Finishing with a time of 51.12 were Hailey Colabelli, Riley Marsh, Emily Shattuck and Caroline Stewart. The time was the best time of their heat as well as well other heats, placing the four at the top of the podium.
Their time was also just .6 seconds off of the meet record, set back in 2010 by the Oxford team of Emily Woodford, Katie Woodford, Jesse Russo and Amanda Marks.
Greene’s Haley DeJager, Gloria Stracquadanio, Brooke Austin, and Madison Rice placed fourth in the race while Kristen Chambers, Rowan Sherrick, McKeyli Decker, and Zamira Caldwell of Bainbridge-Guilford snagged sixth place, the final spot on the podium.
Last year, the Norwich male runners of Zack Race, David Berger, Eric Conant and Ky’Sawn Veale set the time at 44.39 seconds for the full lap race.
As Veale graduated, Scott Tomanocy has filled his spot nicely as he and the three remaining sprinters broke the record once again. This year’s time was 43.67, nearly a full second faster than the previous record.
Coming in right behind Norwich for second place was Coy Austin, Nate Erickson, Spencer Klumpp, and Tristan Austin of the Greene Trojans.
Oxford’s Josh Williams, Jacob Smith, Calvin Smith, and Xavier Cruz ran for fourth place with a time of 48.49 seconds.
Taking a first place finish of the 4x800 meter relay event was Unadilla Valley with the team of Paige Catena, Sierra Schrag, Sophia Off and Rebecca Ruffino.
Each runner raced two laps around the track for a total of eight to complete the race. The Storm runners ran a time of 11:21.49 then stood on top of the podium, awarding their entire team 10 points for the win.
Oxford’s Jessie Meehan, Kaitlin Mulwane, Andrea Dempsey and Shanee Baker-Bush came in as the fifth fastest team to finish and the Norwich girls finished in third.
On the boys side of the event, Norwich’s Gabe Gawronski, Noah Bufalini, Stanton Baker, and Julian Roque ran a time of 9:21.97 for first place.
Sherburne-Earlville came in third place as Ryan Asma, Adam Aldrich, John Maltzan, and Harrison DuBois with a time of 10:06.14. The Trojan’s Robert Champlain, Steven Grammer, Clinton Orzell, Nolan Scofield finished in fifth place.
Norwich had a second team run in the same event. The younger team of Lex Genute, Andrew Meccariello, John Matlack-Grey, and Kody Harrison placed fourth in the race with a time of 10:07.24.
The 100 meter dash semifinals were ran next for both the boys and girls. Four heats took place with the top three finishers of each heat moving on to the finals that took place later in the evening.
In the second heat of girls finals, the crowd was given an exciting race to watch with UV’s Julia Oglesby and the Marauders Amberlyn Robertson.
The two were neck and neck for 90 meters of the race before Oglesby took the slight advantage over Robertson at the end, coming in first by .2 second.
Norwich’s Shattuck finished in third and Jadyn Munson placed sixth, running in the same finals heat.
The bad weather was closing in fast during the boys 100 meter finals. Again with two heats for the finals, the second was two determine the top six places.
The Purple Tornado had three racers – Berger, Conant and Race – in the finals while Austin of Greene and Cruz of the Blackhawks were also included in the heat.
Conant got a good jump off the starting block and took the early lead against Race, the heavy favorite for the event. Race caught Conant midway down the track and edged out his teammate for first.
