NYS Outdoor Track Championship Previews: Boys

New York State Outdoor Track and Field Championships


Boys Preview

Written by Perry King, edited by Kyle Brazeil

Full Photo Credits at Bottom

 

Milesplit Results Full Boys' Seeds Tully Results (on completion)
Date: June 8 and 9, 2012 (Fri.-Sat.) Location: Cicero-North Syracuse HS
 
Meet Info
The New York State Outdoor Championships return to Cicero-North Syracuse High School for the fourth time in nine years after previous highly successful turns in 2004, 2005 and 2009. Events kick off on Friday, June 8 shortly after noontime, with all times being a bit approximate. Athletes from the NYSPHSAA public schools, CHSAA NYC-area Catholic schools, PSAL NYC-area public schools, and the NYSAIS NYC-area private schools will be meeting to see who can run, jump and throw the fastest and furthest.

At States, both the boys and girls have a total of 19 events to vie in, with 16 being individual competitions and three featuring relay squads. The action is further broken down between the Division 1 championships for the big schools (600 seed size and up) and Division 2 championships for smaller schools. In some events like long-distance races, 4x800m relay, pentathlon, high jump and pole vault, the D1 and D2 athletes compete together to decide the division crowns and the overall federation titles. In the rest of the events, the D1 and D2 athletes compete separately for division championships, and then the top 8 performers are selected to compete for the overall title, most of which are decided on Saturday. So yeah, you can potentially finish 7th in the D1 action and go on to win the overall State championship.

2012 has seen some solid action for the NY guys. Though the big warm-winter states tend to fill up the leader boards for most of the events, NY guys have had good results even outside of the pentathlon, which NY is main participant in and which Romario McDowell of Thomas Jefferson in NYC is the leader.  Brendan Smith of CBA-Syracuse leads another NY-owned event, the 3000m steeplechase, Rudy Winkler of Averill Park leads the nation in the hammer throw, an event not at the State championship though it will get attention at the London Olympics in a few months. Dan Lennon of Peru is around the top 25 in the US in the 3000m, and two guys who picked up 400m hurdle crowns at States last year are among the national leaders, with Kadesh Roberts of Bay Shore at #4 and Jeremiah Obeng Agyapong at #11. The Collegiate and  Kellenberg 4x800m relay teams are also around the top 20 in the nation.  With 6 federation champions in individual events from 2011 back to take another crack at a title, States should see some terrific action from Friday around noon through to the  wrapup somewhere around 4:00 on Saturday.
 
2011 Synopsis
States saw some epic battles for the boys last year, though not in the pole vault. Arlington's Jordan Yamoah entered the action with a 15 inch seed margin over the nearest competitor and he quickly broke the state and meet record before heading to Nationals to set the bar even higher finally at 16-8.75. The distance races all had close battles though, as Liverpool's Zavon Watkins held off Monroe-Woodbury's Ryan Brennan to win the 800m, but Greene's Chad Noelle outlasted Watkins in the 1600m, and on Day 1 Tim Luthin of Warwick held off Noelle in the 3200m. Packer's Eddie Owens ran away from everyone in the 3000m steeplechase, and Amityville's Sancho Barrett dominated the 110m hurdles. Brian Smith of Greece-Athena nipped Davion Wint of Christopher Columbus in a sophomore triumph. Sheepshead Bay's Rolyce Boston flew more than a foot farther than anyone else in the long jump to almost break a state record, and Erasmus Hall's Shane Green hopped almost 2 feet further than the other guys in the triple jump. Hackley's AJ Wolf topped everyone by an astounding 3 ft 7.25 inches in the shot put, and also threw his weight around well enough in the discus to pick up a 6th place. In the 4x100m, Medgar Evers sped past Mount Vernon and Half Hollow Hills, and in a great 4x800m matchup, Shaker won out over St. John the Baptist. Watkins, Smith, Wolf and many other champions are back looking for more, so there should be plenty of good stuff to watch at CNS.
 
Top 12 Questions for 2012 States
All of the athletes going to States are sure that their own particular events are the most important focal points of action during the meet, and though these beliefs are true, there are some classically epic battles at States that deserve special attention. Here is a top 12 list of the showdowns that are not to be missed.