Sam Ash of Saranac Lake leads a field of runners in the 1,600 meter race on Wednesday. (Business Photo – Parker O’Brien)
PERU — After the Saranac Lake boys’ track team exited the Section VII Championship tie at Peru High School on Wednesday, the team thought their chances of winning a third straight Section title were gone.
And why wouldn’t they? The hosts, the Peru Nighthawks, had already received their Section Championship crests while taking a team photo with the Section VII banner.
But it was the Red Storm team that had actually won the section title. An error in the scoring results was discovered on Thursday morning; field tests were not graded.
The Saranac Lake boys won the competition with 129 points, while the Nighthawks settled for second place with 122. The Lake Placid boys scored 25 points to finish seventh out of 11 teams.
On the girls’ side, Saranac Central won the title with 246 points while Lake Placid was fifth with 31 and Saranac Lake ninth with 16 points.
Mitchell Ellsworth played a big part in the Red Storm’s sectional title by winning both boys’ throwing events. Ellsworth won the shot put with a throw of 50-03 and the discus with a throw of 133-08.
Only sophomore Liam Nobles won the long jump by a leap of 20-08 while also taking third place in the triple jump (39-7.5). Carter Hewitt, a senior, took third place in the long jump with a jump of 19-02.75
Soren Wolford took second place in the 200 meters in 23.36, while Nobles was fourth in 24.14. Wolford also placed third in the 100 metres.
After posting the fastest first run, Hewitt took third in the 110-metre hurdles in 16.26, while Red Storm’s Robbie Sinclair (18.58) took eighth. Sinclair also finished fourth in the 800-metre hurdles in 1:04.96 with teammate Morgan Martin in 1:06.35.
Local runners took five of the top 10 spots in the 1,600 meter race, with Saranac Lake’s Sam Ash claiming first place in 4:32.61, followed by teammate Jake Kollmer (4:38.45) in third. Lake Placid’s Aidan Fay (4:38.57) was fourth and teammate Andrew Scanio (4:44.78) was sixth. Red Storm’s Aiden Hesseltine took 10th place in 4:51.31.
The Lake Placid duo of Fay (10:04.87) and Scanio (10:05.41) finished second and third respectively in the 3,200 metres. Ash (10:25.42) was fifth and Kollmer (10:29.91) was seventh.
The Saranac Lake boys also took second place in the 4×100 meter relay and the 4×800 meter relay, with times of 46.32 and 8:39.53, respectively.
On the girls’ side, Lilly Rother of Lake Placid had the best result, taking third place overall in the 3,200 meter race in 11:23.58.
Kai McKinnon of the Blue Bombers was fifth in the 1,500 meters in 5:25.52, with Rother right behind her in sixth in 5:25.78. Junior Keene Pia Morelli, competing for Lake Placid, took fifth place in the 400 meters in 1:00.66.
Awa Kujabi of Saranac Lake took seventh place in the long jump with a 14-foot leap. Kujabi finished eighth in the 400-meter hurdles in 1:19.77. Alice LaDue also had a solid day for the Red Storm earning seventh place in the triple jump with a 27-09 jump.
In the throwing events, Lily Jones of Lake Placid won the shot put with a throw of 26-11. Red Storm’s Lena Dedivitis took seventh place in the discus with a throw of 71-00 and eighth in the shot put at 25-05. Her teammate, Hotchkiss, took eighth place in the discus event at 69-03.
Lake Placid’s 4×400 meter relay and its 4×800 meter relay each took fourth place with times of 46.32 and 8:39.53, respectively.
Saranac Lake and Lake Placid will compete in the state qualifying meet on Friday, June 2 at Beekmantown High School.
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