ITHACA - Southern Cayuga's Kara Kopp set a new school record and qualified for the state indoor track and field championship with a first-place finish in the 300m at the Section IV state qualifier Friday night at Cornell University.

"Kara looked awesome and really rolled to the win," said Chiefs coach Bill Mullarney about Kopp's winning time of :42.5.

The other Chief girl to compete was Katharine Miller, who was fourth in the 3000 (11:36.7).

The Chiefs had two other state-meet qualifiers, both boys, as Chris Hilliard won the sectional championship in the 55 hurdles (:8.1) and Pat McGarr was third in the 1000 (2:44.9) to make the Section IV relay.

"Chris looked strong in winning," Mullarney said. "Pat ran a tough 1,000 to make the intersectional relay."

The Chiefs' 4x800 relay of McGarr, Hilliard, Nick Zabriskie and Dave Gannon set a school record by .09 of a second with a time of 8:32.6, but with the second-place finish, did not qualify for the state meet.

"It was a tough one to lose but each leg ran bravely and that's all that can be asked of them," Mullarney said.

The New York State Public High School Athletic Association indoor track and field meet is Sun., March 6 at the Carrier Dome in Syracuse.

Moravia

The Blue Devils' Kerrin Epstein qualified for the state meet as she won the Section IV championship in the girls 1500 in 5:12.4.

Epstein took the lead with a couple of laps left and pulled away for the victory.

Union Springs

Dan Purdy was the lone Wolf to make the state meet as his third-place finish in the 300 (:38.7) placed him on the Section IV relay team.

Other Union Springs finishers included Mackenzie Ziegler Greer, who was fifth in the girls 1000 (3:31.1)

For the boys, Joel Kessler was sixth in the 65m dash (:6.8) and the 300 (:40.1) and Justin Aldrich was sixth in the 600 (1:33.5).