NEW YORK — Some might call the race Sloan Wasserman ran during Friday’s first day of the state indoor track and field championships at Staten Island’s Ocean Breeze Athletic Complex tactical. After all, she held back in the girls 3,000-meter race, not taking the lead until only a few laps were left

But while there was an element of tactics to the John Jay-Cross River senior’s race, there was also just pure strength and speed.

Wasserman pulled well ahead of the field in knocking more than 10 seconds off her previous personal-best time to win both the state public schools (New York State Public High School Athletic Association schools) and state Federation (all schools) championships.

Wasserman’s time of 9:27.39 is No. 10 all-time in the state among high school girls and No. 2 all-time in Section 1, second only to the state’s all-time best, former North Rockland star Katelyn Tuohy.

Wasserman, who’s having a near-magical final year of high school athletics before she leaves to run for Div. I Boston College, set the Queensbury High girls course record last fall in winning the state girls public school Class B cross-country title.

Friday, Wasserman was just as dominant, finishing more than five seconds ahead of runner-up Tsadia Bercuvitz of Ithaca.

“The PR (personal record) is amazing but my goal was to win today and I’m very proud of how I executed it,” Wasserman said.

Wasserman also won the Section 1 Girls Sportsmanship Award.

“It means everything,” she said. “I’m just so thrilled with how everything turned out today. I came in here with nerves (that), for me, were a little bit lower than they have been. I just went out there to have fun today and it’s really great that I felt great and was able to come home with a win.”

While finishing 14th out of 32 starters (who ran in two heats), North Rockland senior Gaby Castro’s 10:02.93 marked a huge, nearly 16-second personal best. Hackley’s Macey McLain was 22nd in 10:16.35.

Suffern wins public boys 4×200 title, lowering its state No. 1 time

Suffern’s Jake Tarrant, Will Lynch, Billy Weber and Jamarih Cantave ran the boys 4×200 relay annoyed.

The four had earlier run the boys 4×400 in a third-place, season-best 3:19.44. But they’d thought they’d do even better.

Sometimes a little anger is a good thing.

The four, who were ranked No. 1 in the state in the boys 4×200 with a 1:28.93 time, slashed that to 1:27.91 to win the Div. I public school title That was also the fastest time clocked by any team, meaning the Mounties should be the favorite when the Federation 4×200 is run Saturday, the final day of the two-day meet.

“We all picked each other up (after the 4×400) and we knew we had another race,” Tarrant said. “We were coming in New York No. 1, so a lot of teams were looking to take us down, but we stayed composed together and were just ready for it.”

Billy Weber, who ran Suffern’s third leg, said he thinks his team can lower its time and break the all-time state record of 1:27.22 during Saturday’s Fed race. North Rockland set that record at last year’s state championships.

Also making Saturday’s boys 4×200 Fed race was Nyack (Asa Signorile, Xavier Etienne, Abdulrasaq Durosinmi and Zaid Ayyoub), whose 1:30.26 finish placed it third among large public schools.

Ryan Sykes wins public school 3,200, Victor Delgado third

Horace Greeley’s Ryan Sykes, who has battled injury and illness this year, captured the state public school title in the boys 3,200 and was third in the state Federation in 9:05.25. Hen Hud’s Victor Delgado (9:11.55) was third in public and medaled in fifth in the Federation.

Iona Prep’s Michael Rynne was 10th overall (9:14.72) and North Rockland’s Ryan Tuohy (9:19.76) was 13th out of 37 runners who competed in two heats.

Delgado and Sykes noted they would have preferred a faster pace than the largely tactical race ended up providing, but both seemed satisfied with their finishes.

“I’m pretty happy with the result,” said Sykes, who’s a sophomore. “I’m happy I could do what I did in the public schools race and even though I wasn’t there at the end with the top guys, I’m still pretty happy with how I did (in Fed placement) and I was right behind them, so I just take a lesson and be ready for the next race.”

“I came in here with a little bit of a different mindset from usual. I literally just wanted to have fun and I knew like any racing outcome that led to that would be a success. … and I’m really happy with my outcome today,” Delgado said.

Delgado, who’ll run for Div. I Dartmouth next year, will run in Saturday’s boys 1,600.

“Now I have something to work for (Saturday) and it will be another great effort,” he said,.

Other medalists and noteworthy finishes

Edgemont’s Sophia Kumar cleared 11-6 for third place in both the state Federation and state public girls pole vault.

New Rochelle (Sophia Ochoa, Alivia Smith, Alexis Smith and Olivia Solomon) ran a season-best 3:56.38 to medal in second place in the girls public school Div. I 4×400-meter relay. New Rochelle’s time, which was the fourth best overall among girls teams, places it in Saturday’s girls 4×400 Federation championship.

Scarsdale (Adriana Pettinelli, Rachel Rakower, Leia Patel and Alice Nicassio), which ran 3:58.65 for fourth place among public schools in that race, will join New Rochelle in Saturday’s Federation girls 4×400 championship.

Ardsley (Zaire Bell, Ahmady Dolcine, Peyton Francis and Andrew Herceg) took second in the boys public small-school 4×200 relay in 1:33.67.

Nanuet (Verony Gyimah, Aliyah Wilson, Leila Mendez and Olivia Santos) ran 1:45.37 to medal in second place in the girls small public 4×200.

Fourth place in that race went to Ardsley (Mioko Martin, Czarina Adewunmi, Sarah Lenihan and Zaniya Bell) in 1:47.01.

In the girls small-school 4×400, Bronxville (Kara Kochansky, Beatrice Hogue, Eva Mihova and Drake Benton) ran 4:08.5 for third place and Hen Hud (Oona McManus, Ava Schembari, Abigail Mazzoni and Sophia Savatgy) clocked 4:09.16 for fifth among public schools.

Albertus Magnus’s Heath Miller ran a personal-best 7.58 to capture fourth in the Federation and third in the public boys 55 hurdles.

C;larkstown South’s Connor Sullivan threw 57-4.5 for fourth place in public and fifth in the Fed in the boys shot put.

While not medaling since only public school awards were given in Friday’s relays, The Masters School had the top time in the Division II boys 4×200 relay. Mason Rosenblatt, David Morris, Khair Parris and Henry Frasca clocked a collective 3:25.61.

In that same small-school race, Bronxville (John Sekula, Grant Patterson, Spencer Martin and Javier Tomala-Reidel) finished in 3:30.23 for fourth place and Nanuet (Ryan Chen, Jerome Thomas, Robert Revolus and Taheer Jonas ran 3:31.5 for fifth among public schools.

Hastings’ Danae Morgan, who’ll be among the favorites in Saturday’s girls weight throw, medaled in seventh place in the state Federation girls shot put with a throw of 36-9.5.

She said she’d approach Saturday with a, “Let’s go for it,” mindset, aiming to top 55 feet.

North Rockland’s Carlos Eliezer narrowly missed medaling in the boys public school triple jump, where he finished seventh at a personal-best 45-7.5.

Nancy Haggerty covers sports for The Journal News/lohud.

This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: Wasserman, Sykes, Suffern relay win gold at state track championships

Reporting by Nancy Haggerty, Rockland/Westchester Journal News / Rockland/Westchester Journal News

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