Dryden Girls Break 33 Year Old 400m Relay Record

Ithaca Journal

VESTAL — Ithaca High’s boys and Dryden’s girls both collected runner-up finishes Saturday night at the Golden Bear Invitational track and field meet, hosted by Vestal High.
The Little Red boys scored 73 points, 18 behind the champions and host Golden Bears. New Rochelle finished third with 63, followed by Maine-Endwell (58) and both Union-Endicott and Corning (57) to round out the top six finishers in the 14-team field. Dryden (9) and Newark Valley (7) placed 12th and 13th, respectively.
Top finishers for the Little Red included:
• The 4x100-meter relay team of Mande Semon, Roosevelt Lee, Jordan Hackworth and Tevin Smith, which placed first in a time of 44.38 seconds;
• Semon, who won the 100 meters in 11.11 seconds and placed third in the triple jump (41 feet, 111/2 inches);
• Hackworth, who placed second in the long jump (22-41/2);
• Dan Dracup, a sophomore, who finished second in the 1,600 in a time of 4:24.56, just under two seconds behind Elmira’s Cory McCarty;
• the 4x400 relay team of Lee, David Franck, Sidney Herman and Dracup, which placed third in 3:32.48, behind New Rochelle (3:30.40) and Elmira (3:31.82);
• and Jakob Markwardt, who placed second in the pole vault at 11 feet.
Bryant Stuttle of Dryden finished second in the triple jump (43-7), behind champion Kenny Onyeukwu of New Rochelle (44-41/2).
Dryden’s girls scored 75 points and finished 24 behind the host school in the race for the team title. M-E and Elmira tied for third (57), followed by Ithaca (52) in the 14-team field.
Freshman Abbey Yatsko won the 200 and 400 meters and anchored the Purple Lions victorious 4x100 relay to earn Track co-MVP honors,sharing the award with U-E’s Kathy Cadet, who won both the 100 and 400 hurdles. Yatsko won the 200 in 26.08 seconds and the 400 in 1:00.04.
The 4x100 relay of Amy DeGaetano, Rachel Wojcik, Macknezie Todd and Yatsko won in a school-record 51.11 seconds, 0.6 seconds ahead of runner-up Union-Endicott. The previous 400 relay record had stood for 33 years.Also setting a Dryden record was middle distance star Rachel Hutchinson, who finished second in the 800 in a time of 2:16.22. Jenna Cupp of Newark Valley won the race in 2:13.14. Mackenzie Todd placed second in the long jump (15-8 1/2).For the Little Red, Emma Denman placed second in the 100 hurdles (16.54); the 4x400 relay team of Sylvia Frank, Jackie Cornell, Denman and Lauren Trumble placed third in 4:13.12; and Ihotu Onah finished second in the shot put (31-4 1/2) and third in the discus (99-6).