Syracuse NY - The brand new 60,000 square feet, 6-lane track sports facility, dubbed the SRC Arena, has now been officially opened for business. A new premiere facility for use by all of Section 3, the arena has a full 6-lane, 200 meter track, with 8 lanes on the straight-away. Pits for horizontal jumps and pole vault line the outer edges of the track, while shot put and high jump can be competed on the in-field.
For Section 3 runners, it was business as usual, as some good early season performances were produced. With much of the Section's distance talent still on break after a large portion of them competed in post season cross country competition, the sprinters took center stage. For the girls, the 55 meter dash competition was tight, as Kamisha Tucker of Fowler edged out later-heat Chelsea Beshures of Mexico in less than one-hundreths of a second. On the boys' side, it would be Mark Broughton of Cicero-North Syracuse to take the win over a lean, as both Amani Jackson of Jamesville-Dewitt and Malik Merrit of Skaneateles both posted equal times of 6.82.
The sprinting events would not be the only place Cicero-North Syracuse would see success. The Distance Medley Relay squad of Maria La Montagne, Justine Seliger, Taylor Parry, and Nicole Watterud for CNS would take home another gold in the event. On the boy's side, it would be the CNS again to take first place, finishing in 11:22.5 .
The final event of the night saw the return of the reigning Indoor and Outdoor 800m champ, Zavon Watkins of Liverpool, to the track for the Sprint Medley Relay. Splitting a fast early season 1:58 in the 800m leg, Watkins would lead his team to victory in 3:44.0. MileSplit NY spoke with Zavon about how his training was going, what his goals for this season were, and more. You can find that video below.
