Flashback Friday: Sam vs. Kam in the 600m in 2016

The 600m race at the 2016 Indoor States Championship at Cornell was a showdown between the two storied juniors Sammy Watson of Rush-Henrietta and Kamryn McIntosh of Suffern. By the time they met up for the race, the list of feats was long. Watson had made noise in her freshman year at national meets, and she had claimed a couple state championships along with running undefeated in the 400m and 800m in her outdoor sophomore season to win national and world championships. Unbeknownst to fans at Cornell, this would be Watson's last indoor States meet since in her senior season she would miss both States track meets to run at big national meets, though as a top XC runner she finished 6th in the States A race.

This would also be McIntosh's last States track meet as her senior season was beset by injuries and illness, though she did have a strong XC season in the fall. In her 2015 sophomore year she had set the state record of 1:28.78 in the 600m while also winning the event at States and the 400m at Nationals, and then outdoors she had won the States 800m while also anchoring Suffern to a 1st in the 4x400m and 2nd in the 4x800m.

Also in the hunt here were Brooklyn Tech leader Tori Johnson, Benjamin Cardozo's Paris Peoples who would win the 2017 States 600m race, North Rockland relay stalwart Sydney March, and Fayetteville-Manlius's Sophie Ryan who dropped down from her usual 1500m and 3000m distances to join the field.

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So with wins in the 600m and 1000m and a leg of Rush-Henrietta's winning 4x200 meter squad, was Watson the star athlete of the meet? Maybe, but then again she had a little competition there from a sophomore teammate named Lanae-Tava Thomas who took the titles in the 55m and long jump and also had a share of the Royal Comets' 4x200m win. McIntosh took the stick in 3rd for her anchor leg of Suffern's 4x400m and blew away the field for a repeat title for the Mounties.