Staten Island NYC – Once again our annual trek to this great facility yielded lots of PRs as well as a couple of big wins.
One would not be surprised to find ‘I ♥ NY’ bumper stickers on the cars of both Grayson Ruffner and Dom Sheppard.
Ruffner’s three races in NY included two wins and one school record, while Dom is 2 for 2 at 200 taking the Sophomore division here to follow up his win at the Officials Hall of Fame meet last weekend.
Ruffner improved his state-leading mile time winning his race while running away from “the best kicker in the Empire State!” (According to the announcer) over the last half lap. School record hopes (4:17.09 Crits 2011) were dashed right away with a slow first lap of 34 sec. causing Gray to take the lead and push the pace, towing the field through 6 laps. After a couple of surges from the ‘kicker’, (who actually DID out-kick Grayson in last weekend’s mile), they headed into the last turn with Gray on the kid’s shoulder. Gray hit the gas and just powered away down the home stretch to finish in 4:17.59.
The 200 pre-lims saw Dom win his heat in a PR 22.67 but was seeded second in the final to the winner of the soph 55 dash. With Dom in lane six, the top seed in lane 5 pulled even heading into the home stretch. Dom somehow found another gear and edged ahead at the line for the win in 22.29. That’s another huge PR and a state qualifier. Looks like a legit medal contender (top 8) come states. (Editor’s note – Why no turn judges at such a big meet? The kid who challenged Dom from lane 5 was blatantly over the lane line throughout BOTH turns. Should have been DQd.)
The meet had Freshman, Sophomore and Varsity divisions with Red (fastest), White and Blue sub-groups in each based on entry seed times.
| 55HH | Dass | 9.16 | V White | |
| 55M | West | 7.07 | S Red | |
| Nash | 7.08 | V White | ||
| Ford | 7.09 | S Red | ||
| Godoy | 7.31 | F Red | ||
| Li | 7.34 | V Blue | ||
| 200 | Sheppard | 22.67 | 22.29 | S Red |
| Nash | 23.96 | V White | ||
| West | 23.58 | S Red | ||
| Ford | 24.44 | S Red | ||
| Davis | 24.47 | S Red | ||
| Wescott | 24.47 | V White | ||
| Lampron | 25.14 | S White | ||
| Li | 25.49 | V Blue | ||
| Godoy | 25.52 | F Red | ||
| Lynch | 26.17 | S White | ||
| Mason | 26.59 | F White | ||
| Merriweather | 26.61 | F White | ||
| 800 | Sydney | 2:08.92 | V Blue | |
| Dass | 2:09.32 | V Blue | ||
| E Gobin | 2:12.93 | F Red | ||
| Haines | 2:20.66 | S Red | ||
| Fulmer | 2:31.61 | F Red | ||
| Pierlott | 3:04.96 | F Red | ||
| Mile | Ruffner | 4:17.59 | V Red | |
| A Gobin | 4:54.00 | V White | ||
| Lambright | 4:59.72 | V White | ||
| Winkowski | 5:12.55 | V Blue | ||
| Pelletier | 5:12.55 | S Red | ||
| Han | 5:31.13 | S Red | ||
| Seaman | 5:38.85 | S Red | ||
| Finegan | 5:37.13 | F Red | ||
| Feng | 5:41.85 | S Red | ||
| 4×2 | Sheppard | 22.21 | ||
| West | 23.80 | |||
| Ford | 23.54 | |||
| Wescott | 23.30 | V Red | 1:32.84 |