Last month, we combined two heats of the mile to finish our track meet quickly before a thunderstorm hit. This month, the forecast was dire from the beginning, and it rained hard much of the day in Ithaca. However, in nearby Lansing, there was little or no rain during the day. When we arrived for setup, the grass wasn’t even wet, and the rain held off the entire time.
But the weather scared a lot of people off, such that we ended up with exactly the same number of finishers as in July: 38. With so few runners and our highly competent volunteers warmed up from the previous meet, we finished the entire meet in well under an hour. Full results are now available.
We led off with the 100m race, our most popular event with 24 runners across five heats. In the fast heat, Anthony Smith outpaced Daniel Brandi, 11.49 seconds to 11.65 seconds, with Aidan Gallagher third in 11.86. Kiara Tornusciolo was first for the women in a speedy 13.92, followed by 12-year-old Evelyn Jackson in 15.34. A special shout-out to our last two finishers, who share initials but span the age gamut: 63-year-old Joseph Sullivan in 22.96 and 3-year-old Josephine Swanstrom in 32.42.
We turned next to the 1 mile, where 18 runners dueled it out in a single big heat. For the first two laps, Alex Simpson, Scott Weeks, and Adam Berkowitz ran together in a pack before Weeks took the lead in the third lap. Simpson was just biding his time, though, and he started his kick at the bell, retaking the lead and breaking the tape in 4:35. Weeks followed in 4:40, and Berkowitz in 4:45. Liz Hartman took the women’s crown with a solid 5:59; the only other woman in the race was 9-year-old Annaliese Granroth, who finished in 8:34.
We had scheduled the 400m with four heats, but between no-shows and scratches, we ended up combining the first two heats into one and putting speedsters Keshawn Jones and Patrick Milano into a second heat by themselves. Jones easily took the win in 55.59 seconds, with Milano recording a solid 1:00.53. In the kid heat, 6-year-old Kaarina Granroth posted a 1:47.48 for the win for girls, just ahead of Ellie Swanstrom in 1:48.55 and her 9-year-old (but tired from the mile) sister Annaliese Granroth in 1:54.51.
Our final event of the night was the 800m, again run as a single heat for eight runners. William Hartnett took it out hard and ran alone the entire way to win in 2:09, with Liz Hartman doubling her distance wins to come in second overall and first for the women in 2:50.
The fact that we could finish an entire track meet in something like 37 minutes is a testament to how smoothly our track volunteer team operated. Josh Brockner served as head timer this month, and Dave Kania took over wrangling Meet Manager, with Bob Talda helping both of them and doing backup timing. Tom Rishel reprised his role as starter, Laurel Gilmer recorded finishers, Bill Watson organized the runners into heats, Tonya Engst managed bib pickup, and Becca Lovenheim coordinated all the Lansing track equipment for us. Special thanks to Jenny Berkowitz and innocent bystander Penny, who provided essential thumb help with timing the 100m.
Sadly, photographer Gabby Woo wasn’t feeling well, so we don’t have official photos of the meet. But if you were there and took any photos, please share them in our album!