Note: This story will be updated later tonight.
WHITE PLAINS — The second day of the 57th annual Loucks Games, one of the country’s premier high school track and field meets, had a familiar aura to it with rain falling throughout most of it.
How much of an impact that has had on what is occurring is, of course, unclear.
But Friday was anything but a washout for local athletes, who are among 3,500 registered to compete from 10 states and three Canadian provinces.
One concession Loucks made to the weather may have cost one Section 1 competitor gold, but that debate won’t have an answer.
Wyatt Gravier, the senior from Bronxville, who missed the indoor state championships with a hamstring injury but who won the 110-meter hurdles Federation and public school championship last spring, finished second in the event Friday.
He crossed the line in first place in what was originally intended as a heat leading to a final. His time was a season-best 14.11.
But due to the weather, the boys 110 hurdles and girls 100 hurdles and both the boys and girls and 200-meter races were made finals on time, meaning the time athletes ran in their heat were merged into one big final race finish.
And Cicero North Syracuse’s Cameron Ingram, who was in a heat after Gravier’s, ran 14.09 for a .02 win.
“It’s definitely frustrating. All my better times are run against competition. not to say there wasn’t competition (in my heat), but I always run better against some of the tougher guys in the state, like Cameron,” said Gravier, who won at states last spring in 14.05.
But Gravier, who predicted he’d face Ingram next month at the state championships, also expressed satisfaction.
“I’m happy with my time. Today is a confidence booster,” said Gravier, who’ll run in the 400 hurdles Saturday, when the forecast is for sunny skies.
Fourth place and silver
North Rockland’s Jaquan Johnson ran into the same problem as Gravier in the boys 200, which also included multiple heats.
But the senior, who’ll play football for Delaware State next year for former Philadelphia Eagle DeSean Jackson, but is also being courted to run track there, still medaled in fourth place in a season-best 22.17.
The win went to Connecticut’s Luke Richardson in 22.03.
“It’s definitely harder. I like to have people in my heat who I know are pushing me,” said Johnson, who’ll run Saturday on North Rockland’s 4×100 relay squad.
Unlike the hurdles and 200s, the 800-meter runs were seeded with those with the top times to date going against each other in the final heat.
There, Fordham Prep’s John Canale, who lives in the Crestwood section of Westchester County, finished second in 1:54.42 to Garden City’s Donald McDonough (1:53.93).
Pearl River junior JD Lloyd McKenna grabbed the final medal spot, running 1:55.16 for fifth place.
Canale, who, like Gravier, will run for UConn next year, thinks he can get down to about 1:50 this season.
While the conditions might have slowed the race times a bit, he noted he has also been sick this week.
Other local medalists
Boys 3,200: Andy Condon, John Jay-Cross River (third place, 9:00.96); Claudel Chery, North Rockland (fourth place, 9:01.56)
Girls 100 hurdles: Nya Thomas, North Rockland (fifth place, 14.76)
Girls shot put: Danae Morgan, Hastings (fifth place, 35-2.75 — edges Clarsktown South’s Maggie Hansen by three-quarters of an inch in a field of 42. )
Suffern and Ursuline second in boys and girls SMR, Somers third in girls DMR during opening day
Local athletes also medaled during Loucks opening day on Thursday.
In the boys East Coast 19-team sprint medley relay, Suffern (Todd Korman, Frank Romeus, Jake Tarrant and Micheal Cromwell) won silver in 3:32.81.
In the 12-team, girls SMR, Ursuline also captured silver with Ivana Richards, Kylie Willis, Sofia Henao and Jane Hickey running 4:00.83.
Guilderland won in 3:57.85.
The win went to Bellport in 3:31.94.
Suffern (Avianhah Sanon, Madison Hogarth, Kayla Darius and Karen Augustin) clocked 4:15.03 for fourth.
Byram Hills ( Tyler Marescot, Zachary Bourkadi, Derek Swierk and Derk Wolvius) finished top-five in fourth place (3:34.35).
Somers (Julia Duzynski, Haylie Donovan, Keira Cleary and Mia Sandolo) ran 12:17.16 for third place out of 17 teams in the girls distance medley relay.
Guilderland won in 12:07.8.
Nancy Haggerty covers cross-country, track & field, field hockey, baseball, skiing, ice hockey, basketball, girls lacrosse and other sporting events for The Journal News/lohud. Follow her on Twitter at @HaggertyNancy.
This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: Loucks Games track and field: Weather changes Day 2 but locals still medal
Reporting by Nancy Haggerty, Rockland/Westchester Journal News / Rockland/Westchester Journal News
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