St. Francis boys and Nardin's girls repeated as Monsignor Martin track and field champions on Sunday at St. Francis High School.
St. Francis finished 30 points ahead of St. Joe's and Nardin scored 25 points more than Sacred Heart.
Nardin’s Abby Graber won both the 1500-meter run, an event she had “adopted” her freshman year, and the 3,000 meters.
“The 15, I had wanted to win since freshman year because I had adopted it as my event,” Graber said. “The 3,000, I had only raced once before this season, so my coach was just telling me to just go out and see how I do, so that was kind of a surprise winning that.”
Graber enjoyed running the 1500 with teammates Clare and Maggie Cryan, and she led the way as Nardin finished as the girls’ All-Catholic champion for the third consecutive year. Winning both events as a senior showed Graber how far she has come.
Kayla Hall from Mount. St. Mary wins the 400 at the Monsignor Martin Track and Field Championships at St. Francis High School on Sunday, May 19, 2019. (Harry Scull Jr./Buffalo News)
“Definitely not what I thought I would be doing freshman year,” Graber said. “Being like the third or fourth on the team all these years, being able to go out like this my senior year, I had never expected this when I saw myself freshman year.”
St. Francis' Ben Pinkowski placed first in the high jump and long jump on Saturday, and he placed first in the triple jump Sunday before running on the winning 4x400 relay team.
Pinkowski wasn’t surprised by his performance over the weekend, and he focused on having fun while taking pride in his accomplishments.
“It was, for the most part, just fun because I knew I was gonna be one of the top seeds coming in, so I just needed to perform well, and grabbing all three felt really good,” Pinkowski said of winning the three jump events. “It feels good because I’m now a four-time All-Catholic, so being able to say that is nice and leaving with that, I feel like I made my mark here.”
Thrower Tyler Doty broke his own record in the shot put on Saturday with a throw of 62 feet, 11 3/4 feet, and won the discus throw Sunday to help St. Joe’s finish second.
The shot put record had stood for 41 years before Doty broke it earlier this month, and he broke it again on Saturday.
“I just went in wanting to beat my own record,” Doty said. “I’ve just been working on technique. That’s all it’s about, just getting better with foot placement and everything, so my goal has been to beat myself.”
Canisius sprinter Joel Nicholas also won multiple events, placing first in the 100 and 200.
In the girls meet, Ella Dileo of Nardin placed first in the 800 meters. Alyssa Harrington of Cardinal O’Hara repeated as winner of the 100 and Mount St. Mary’s Kayla Hall was first in the 400. Nevaeh Parker of Christian Central Academy captured the 200 and Sacred Heart won the 4x100 relay.
In the boys meet, Will Ostrowski of St. Joe’s won the 400 meters, Tommy Appenheimer took the 1,600 and St. Francis was first in the 4x100.
This weekend’s All-Catholic champions will travel to the state meet on May 25 at Icahn Stadium in New York City.
