The indoor track and field state championships are just around the corner. The state meet will once again take place on Staten Island at the Ocean Breeze Athletic Complex from March 6-7, and Tompkins County will once again be well-represented.
One of the most dominant athletes on the track this winter has been Newfield’s Maddie White. The junior is undefeated in the 1,500-meter racewalk, including victories in the Section IV Class C/D championship as well as at state qualifiers, the latter of which she once again broke her own school record with a time of 7:12.67. Most of her races haven’t been particularly close. At the sectional championship, she beat the runner-up by 16 seconds. Then at state qualifiers, she claimed victory by a whopping 23 seconds.
While White mainly focuses on maintaining her hefty leads during her races, she also has time to display strong sportsmanship.
“I’m pretty good friends with everyone I’ve competed against, so usually I cheer them on also while I’m racing,” White said. “When I’m lapping them, I’ll just say, ‘You got this.’ And it also helps me when I do that because it also convinces me to push harder and for the next person.”
Racewalking is one of the more niche events in track and field. In fact, White initially took part in eighth grade as a joke. But the more she competed, the more she fell in love with racewalking. That level of passion and dedication has translated to copious amounts of success, culminating in her second trip to states.
“Most of my training is going to be focused on speed,” White said. “The rest of my training before has been on distance and endurance. And now I’m focusing on speed and getting my times down, turnovers and focusing on forms and upper body and all that.”
Ross Bush will make his third appearance at states for indoor track and field. The senior will compete in the 1,000-meter run after finishing in third place at state qualifiers. While his time of 2:38.26 was three seconds shy of the standard needed to qualify for the third-place finishers, Bush cleared the necessary time at a meet in the season to punch his ticket.
Bush has had an outstanding career for the Red Hawks. Just during the indoor season alone, he has broken 10 school records, eight of which were for individual events. As one of the best to ever do it at Groton, Bush will certainly be a role model for the next generation of Red Hawk athletes.
“I’m trying my best to lead,” Bush said. “I’ve never been the strongest leader, but I’d say I’m making it work, trying to motivate my teammates to train harder and do all the right things, to be prepared mentally and physically. It’s no easy feat, but it’s something that needs to be done for the senior athletes.”
At the Section IV Class C/D championships, Bush finished runner-up in the 1,000-meter run and won the 600-meter run.
The lone state qualifier for Lansing this season is Trent Thibault. The senior will be taking part in the 3,200-meter run after finishing in first place at state qualifiers with a time of 9:30.31. Thibault makes his return to Staten Island after missing out on states last season. During his sophomore year, he made it in the 1,600-meter run. This year, Thibault finished in third place at state qualifiers in that event but did not meet the standard time.
Thitbault has carried over his momentum from the fall season, where he took home the Class C state title in cross country. The Columbia University commit earned more postseason success during the Section IV Class C/D Championships, winning both the 1,600-meter and 3,200-meter runs.
Last but not least, Ithaca will once again send a strong contingent of athletes to Staten Island. Tsadia Bercuvitz will take part in two events—the 1,500-meter and 3,000-meter runs—after winning both at state qualifiers. The junior is also part of the 4×800-meter relay team that finished in first place and broke the school record in the process. The other members are senior Eliza DeRito, junior Skyler Lovenheim and sophomore Avery Whittaker, and the alternatives are juniors Maren Golden and Ruby Betts. Golden will also be competing in the pole vault after placing second at state qualifiers.
For the boys, senior Zoli Nadasdy will take part in the 1,600-meter run after a second-place finish at state qualifiers. Hayden Cornell also finished runner-up in the weight throw to punch his ticket to Staten Island.
While Dryden and Trumansburg did not have any athletes qualify for states, they each had an athlete who came close to doing so. For Dryden, junior Reagan Burnham finished in third place at state qualifiers in the 1,000-meter run but did not have the standard time. As for Trumansburg, senior Evey Pennock also placed third in the pole vault but was one foot shy of the standard height.
