New York State Indoor Track and Field Championship - Boys Preview

For the second year in a row, Cornell's hallowed old Barton Hall will serve as the stage for the NY State Indoor Championship. This year the girls go first, with events starting off at 9:00am on Saturday, March 3rd, and the boys cutting in around 2:00. There are warm up periods of about an hour before each session.

The meet serves as both a championship for the NYSPHSAA confederation schools, but also as the Federation championship for the PSAL public schools, CHSAA Catholic schools, and AIS private schools of the NY City region (who have already held their championship meets), in conjunction with the statewide NYSPHSAA schools. Medals for the top 6 places are awarded for both championships, so NYSPHSAA athletes are eligible to bag two medals in an event. Each of the NYSPHSAA sections has recently held a State Qualifier meet to determine which 2 to 3 athletes (if the 3rd place finisher meets qualification standards) will represent the section at States in each event. Only one relay team advanced from each section. The 55m sprint and hurdle events have preliminary-semifinal-final rounds, while the 300m sprint and 4x200m and 4x400m relays have preliminary and final rounds. An extra event, the intersectional medley relay (1000m-200m-600m-1600m) is also run but is not reviewed here.

Note that all info is based on what was available as of Wednesday morning.

2012 Overview

The NY boys are having another solid year, with some events ranging on explosive. Summarizing some of the key points head into States:
 

• Strymar Livingston of Christopher Columbus is again leading the US in the 600m after breaking his own national record.
• The boys of the Boys and Girls team of NYC has the country's top 4x400m squad and Newburgh Free Academy is at #4 in the nation.
• Arlington's Sibby Hanson has the US best official 3200m time, which he set at the Section 1 Qualifier, though it is behind a group of converted 2-mile times, with Saint Benedict-NJ's Edward Cheserek at the top in the nation.
• Last year's 300m States champ, Ismail El-Amin of Wilson Magnet, is rated among the top-10 long jumpers in the nation, and this year he has qualified in both events at States.
• Last year's 800m national champ Zavon Watkins of Liverpool has had an interesting year, and he will run again at States in the 1000m instead of the 1600m, in which he is among the US leaders.
• A potential great battle is shaping up in the 300m, where Mount Vernon's Steven Gayle and Midwood's Andy Nicolas are ranked 6th and 7th nationally.
• In the 55m, Spring Valley's Winslow Dorsainvil is back to defend his title, and last year he was the male athlete who came the closest to breaking an NY record at States, missing by just .02 seconds.

The listings below for each event are just a general overview of how the event is shaping up, and the actual finishes will probably be somewhat different. Some guys may have a little too much on the plate at States between individual heats and relays, others may have pushed a little too hard at recent qualifiers and championships or, possibly like Watkins, are ready to push far beyond their seed times. Last year only 6 of the 15 events were won by the pre-meet seeded favorites, and 6 of the events were also won by the 3rd or 4th seeded competitor. Also note that some of the top athletes and relay teams competed at Eastern States on Tuesday, so there could be an effect (plus or minus) on performance at States. At States meets, the juices flow and stuff happens.

Boys Events

The "SQ Result" is the State Qualifier result for NYSPHSAA athletes in their sections or the confederation championship result for PSAL, CHSAA, and AIS athletes.