Upstate New York team wins girls' DMR with best outdoor time of season

A Penn Relays official sidetracked the ecstatic girls from Fayetteville-Manlius High and doubled, if not tripled, their pleasure.

Though Jillian Fanning, for one, at first wasn't sure what was happening.

"I was kind of confused," she said. "I thought he was taking us back to where our warmup stuff was. But it didn't look familiar."

Instead, the man herded the girls into the building at the west end of Franklin Field and stopped just a few feet down a hallway. He then reached into a box and, presto, out came four red-and-blue batons, which would serve as lifetime mementos.

"Awwwww, that's so nice!" the girls cooed, pretty much as one. "Thank you!"

Moments later, Fanning noted, "The man said one of the boys' teams was asking for them, but he thought we deserved them more."

And how.

After leaving the Syracuse, N.Y., area yesterday morning, arriving at Franklin Field at about 2:30, then having to wait around for about 100 extra minutes because of two thunderstorms that suspended the action, Fayetteville-Manlius' distance medley relay team fashioned an all-time performance.

Not only did the Hornets break the meet record, but their time of 11 minutes, 34.36 seconds sniffed the U.S. scholastic mark (11:31.81), and it qualifies as the nation's best so far this outdoor season.

Only batons? No keys to the city?

F-M's quartet was composed of juniors Katie Sischo (1,200) and Heather Martin (400), senior Courtney Chapman (800) and Fanning (1,600), a sophomore.

Fanning's split of 4:51.39 represented a personal record. When Fanning clocked 2:21 for her first 800 meters, the PA announcer roared, "Serious shot at the Penn Relays record! . . . If not more!" He added Fanning need to run 4:54 or 4:55.

"I heard him," Fanning said. "I tried to block it out, because I didn't want it to mess up my racing. I just wanted to run to my capabilities. I guess I could have done a little better in spots, but I just wanted to make sure we'd win . . . while still posting a fast time."

During the final lap, the PA guy noted that Sabrina Southerland, of Benjamin Cardozo (Queens, N.Y.), was closing the gap.

"I knew coming in that I'd be facing extremely good competition," Fanning said, "so I was prepared and ready to battle it out."

The race featured the nation's top 10 teams from the indoor season, and the top four seeds were from New York state. So is Warwick Valley, the squad that posted the country's all-time best effort (only 3 years ago).

"Goes to show the strength our state has," Fanning said.

This performance also revealed how a focused quartet can overcome a maddening glitch.

"That delay was pretty frustrating. Never went through one that long," Fanning said. "We were somewhat on edge. We didn't know if they'd fall further back in time, or maybe jump ahead.

"We just tried to stay relaxed. We did a little running around, just to stay loose, but it was very humid when we first got here, and we didn't want to be drained . . . Ah, it's OK. It always helps to face different challenges."

After spending the night in Philly, the gals were set to head home this morning.

Good thing they weren't flying. The metal detectors would have gone crazy. *