Friday the 13th proved to be a good day for the Waverly girls at the New York State Track and Field Championships as Erika Kisel advanced to today’s finals in the 200-meter dash and the 4x400-meter relay team of Mariah Brown, Kisel, Kayla Hager and Cat Hursh posted their best time of the season to place fourth.
    The relay squad had one chance to shine, as the event is a timed final.
Running in the fast heat, Mariah Brown got her team off to a good start but faded a bit down the stretch to hand the baton to Kisel in third. Kisel ran a sub-1:00 leg that put her team right in the thick of the race before handing off to Hager, who led much of the lap before some runners with first-rate closing kicks made their move. When Hager got to Hursh there were four teams within a half-second of each other at the front of the pack. By the time the handoff was complete and the final runner for each team hit the corner, Hursh was fourth. She battled anchors Rayanne Geleta of Academy of Holy Names, Chelsea Champlin of Medina and Bronxville’s Olivia Bruton all the way around the track to the head of the home stretch. Realizing she might get hemmed in on the inside, she moved to the outside in an effort to make a move. In the end, she also ran a sub-1:00 lap but wasn’t able to improve her position.
    The team’s 4:03.11 was just .08 of a second behind third-place Bronxville. Holy Names won the event with a time of 4:01.96 and Medina was second at 4:02.42.
For all four runners, the excitement of posting their best time of the year and getting to go to states with good friends outweighed any disappointment of not matching their seed (second).
    “I’m really proud and happy with the way we ended,” said Hursh. “I had to move out down the final stretch to make sure I wouldn’t get boxed in and that made it a little longer race, but I’m completely happy.”
    Kisel echoed that sentiment.
    “Having our best time, especially in conditions like this, makes me happy,” she said, noting a stiff headwind down the stretch. “Our handoffs were a little rough, but we were still shoulder-to-shoulder at the end.”
    Brown admitted some nerves early on, but will take one enduring memory from the weekend.
    “I’ll remember being here with the girls,” she said.
    “Bring my first time here, I didn’t know what to expect,” said Hager, the only runner on the team making her first appearance at the state meet. “I just gave it everything I had.”
Waverly coach Scott Baird was also happy with his team’s run, but was disappointed that the weather, with temperatures near 90 and a stiff wind that eventually blew in a thunderstorm that shut down the meet for a time, wasn’t better.
    “I was disappointed that the conditions dictated the race,” Baird said, adding, “But knowing that they (had their best time) – you can’t ask anything more than that.
Kisel was certainly affected by the stiff wind that she had to run through in the 200 dash earlier in the day.
    After a good corner, Kisel ran shoulder to shoulder with Renee McDougall of independent school Horace Mann and Shontai Moye of Buffalo East at the head of the front stretch. McDougall was able to pull away down the front stretch, but Kisel ran shoulder to shoulder with Moye nearly all the way to the stripe. In the end, McDougall ran a fine 25.45 with Moye checking in at 25.90 and Kisel third at 26.09. The first two in each heat and the next four best times advanced to the final. After the second race, won by Alexis Easterling of Woodlands in 25.55 with Christian Brothers Academy (Syracuse) runner Melissa Zajdel second with a time of 25.89, Kisel finds herself the fifth seed heading into today’s 11:30 a.m. final.
    “I was very pumped,” said Kisel, the only sophomore to make the final. “We were really close until the last few meters. The corner felt very good, but I think I was over-striding a bit.”
    Also qualifying for today’s final were Sherez Mohamed of Holy Names, Savanna Conners of Ellenville and John Marshall’s April Stewart-Washington.