ITHACA - That's the problem with hurdles - they always seem to get in the way.

Southern Cayuga senior Chris Hilliard blazed through the preliminaries for the 55-meter hurdles at the boys and girls indoor track and field state championships at Cornell University on Saturday. Hilliard got out of the blocks quickly and finished eighth with a school-record time of 8.01.

“I love this,” Hilliard said after his preliminary run. “This is my home place.”

Things didn't go so smoothly, though, in the semifinals. Hilliard clipped his left foot on a hurdle in the adjacent lane and fell to the track. Despite the disqualification, Hilliard finished 16th overall and was pleased with his performance.

“My goal was to get into the semis,” he said. “That's been my goal all along. I just didn't luck out. The guy in the next lane hit his hurdle, and it whacked me on the foot. There was nothing much I could do.”

Southern Cayuga coach Bill Mullarney knew his star athlete could qualify for the semifinals but also knew he would need a near perfect run in prelims to get there.

“It was nip and tuck,” Mullarney said. “We knew it would take a really good score to make the semis, and he got it. I still would have liked to see him break eight (seconds) in the semis. I think he could have if he didn't fall.”

In the 3,200-meter run, Auburn's Chris Mason finished 23rd (9:56.05), while Shilah Richardson took 22nd place in the 600-meter run (1:28.06).

Richardson led his heat for more than half the race but fell back a bit toward the finish.

“I felt pretty good,” Richardson said. “It was a lot better than last year. I wanted to take two to four seconds off my time and it didn't happen. But my goal was to not finish last in my heat like last year so I'm feeling pretty good.”

Shilah's younger brother, Ray, competed in the triple jump and finished 12th (43 feet, 8 inches). It was only Ray's first trip to states and both he and his coach, Eli Hernandez, feel he'll break into the state finals his senior season.

“Each week he's been gaining about a foot (in the triple jump),” Hernandez said. “He keeps getting better and better. He's only a junior so I think he'll be back next year and take the title.”

Mason, a sophomore, is also expected to make his second trip to the state championships in 2007. Hernandez was very pleased with his entire team's performance and is looking forward to bringing more runners to Cornell next season.

“We've got Chris and Ray back and they both have this experience to build on,” Hernandez said. “I'm sure they'll be back and I hope all of us can be back and bring a few more kids with us. It's been a lot of fun with these guys and the coaching staff. I'm very happy with the season and look to build on it for next year.”

In the girls' events, Moravia's Kerrin Epstein and Amber Murphy finished with solid performances.

Epstein improved upon her 29th-place finish in 2005 and finished 22nd in the 1,500-meter run. Her time of 5:04.13 is nearly 20 seconds faster than her time from last year.

In her first trip to states, Murphy took 23rd place in the shot put (30-01.75). Although she didn't reach her goal of 33 feet, Murphy did improve upon her 24th ranking heading into the event.

“It's not exactly the performances we were hoping for,” Moravia coach Jan Hunsinger said. “But they finished right around where they were seeded. It's kind of a wash but they performed right around where they should have.”