Waverly girls take second in indoor track and field

The Waverly girls brought home a second-place finish at the Class A-B Sectional meet for track and field in Cornell.

Elmira won at 88, followed by Waverly at 74.5. Corning was at 70.5, followed by Horseheads at 56, Vestal at 51 and Dryden at 40.

In the 600 Mariah Brown ran a season-best 1:41.72 to get the victory, followed by Erika Kisel in a season-best 1:41.76. Kaylee Uhl finished fourth in the event in a season-best 1:43.21.

In the 55 hurdles Autumn Johnson finished first in 9.09 and in the 300 Kisel finished second in 43.07, while Brown took third in a season-best 43.27.

Kayla Hager finished third in the high jump at 5-feet and in the pole vault Johnson was second at 10-feet.

The 3200 relay of Trisha Steward, Beitris McKeon, Cayla Rogers and Courtney Ward finished sixth in 11:32.90 and the 800 relay of Serena and Sebrina Emms, Nikki Nocchi and Johnson took fourth in 1:57.74.

The 1600 relay of Kisel, Brown, Uhl and Hager finished second in 4:17.25.

"It couldn't have turned out any better," Waverly coach Scott Baird said. "Team wise that was the only thing we were hoping we could do. By being runner-up, which is just my second time with the girls and may be just the second time Waverly has done it since they have done the sectional meet with winter track.

"The performances were great. They really took some drops in their times. A lot of people had personal records, it was a wonderful night for the girls."

The only negative for Waverly was getting beat in their marquee event, the 1600 relay.

"The only setback, and we didn't see it coming, was Elmira decided to load up a 1600 relay and we got dusted," Baird said. "They ran 4:10 and some odd change and we ran a 4:17. 4:10 is something I think we are capable of running and we are anticipating that with the state meet, but Elmira just ran away from us.

"That leaves us to decide what to do. Do we try and go after them, or do we hope if they choose to go after that one we go after a different relay. Or, do we try both relays and see if we can get at least one. We've got some thinking to do about what we need to do with the state qualifier now. That is the only downer."

The boys finished sixth with 35 points.

Elmira won at 103, followed by Corning at 91, Dryden at 55, Vestal at 55 and Horseheads at 44.

Will Mullen took sixth in the 1,000 in 2:44.38 and in the 500 high hurdles Ian McMahon finished fifth in a season-best 8.65 and Tyler Brockoff took sixth in a season-best 8.77.

Travis Elston took fifth in the 1,600 setting a new school record with a time of 4:40.08. The old mark of 4:40.30 was set by John Smith in 2004.

In the long jump Nick Puusalu took sixth at 19-feet, 3 1/4-inches and McMahon finished third in teh triple jump at 38-feet 6 1/2-inches.

Chris McCarty finished second in the pole vault at 13-feet, 6-inches. The 3200 relay finished sixth with a school record time of 8:47.60. The team of Elston, Mullen, Jimmy Root and Leo Ayers broke the time of 8:50.43 set earlier this year by Elston, Mullen, Ayers and McMahon.

The 800 relay of McCarty, McMahon, Puusalu and Brian Tubbs took second in 1:37.81.

"On the guys side, considering the lack of depth we had the type of performances they turned in, that was a wow. Travis in the 1,6000, he has been on fire recently. It's a shame that his specialty is just really loaded this year with the other schools and that makes it difficult. The guys were just awesome."

This meet also determined the IAC all-stars. All top three finishes earn first-team honors and all fourth through sixth place finishes earn second-team nods.

Waverly is at the state qualifier in Cornell on Feb. 19.

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