Fairport outdoor track and field is Primetime 585 Spotlight Team

The Spotlight team of the week is Fairport outdoor track and field. Both boys and girls won a tough head to head meet against their league rivals from Webster Schroeder.

This is a team consisting of many talented athletes including Ari Reback who dominates long distance and won ALL her races against the Warriors. She took the 800, 1500, and 3000 meters.

Emma Blodgett is one of the top hurdlers in Section Five and she showcased her skills in Webster. Blodgett follows in her mother’s footsteps. Karen Elliott Blodgett set the Section Five 400 hurdles record in 1993 and it stood for 25 years.

Emma doesn’t run the 400 hurdles as fast as her mother once did, but she does have the best time for the event in Section Five so far this year.

“I’ve been doing hurdles since 8th, 9th grade,” Emma Blodgett said. “A lot of people ask if (mom) made me do it. I’m like ‘No’. I just wanted to. Kind of following in footsteps, but I liked the hurdles from the beginning.”

Can’t forget Marykate Rudnicki who easily won the 100 and 200 meters for Fairport against Schroeder. The senior said that meet in Webster was a bit sad, despite the individual and team success.

“It’s our last league meet. I really like league meets because everyone gets to come to them,” Rudnicki said. “I feel like Fairport has good team spirit. Everyone cheers for everyone.”

“It’s just a really great community in general,” Reback said. “Not just in Fairport. In all of Section Five. We’re all competition on the track, but off the track, we’re all friends.”

Jake Passalugo owns many school records at Fairport. The long distance runner also helped his team defeat the Schroeder boys with a win in the 1600 meters.

“We definitely talked as a team about getting more sleep, hydrating more, doing more as a team,” Passalugo said. “Just me isn’t going to win (the meet). This is a team effort.”

Passalugo is one of four Fairport seniors who have freshman brothers on the team. All eight are distance runners.

In the Schroeder meet, the brothers went head to head in a 4×100 relay. It was seniors against freshmen, something that’s likely not happened before at a Section Five meet. The seniors won.

Well… not all the seniors won.

“It just seemed like a cool opportunity,” senior Ryan Mulley said. “This is our first and only season together. We thought it would be cool to make it happen.”

Mulley’s team may have won, but he admitted that little brother Jared won the family battle. Jared’s leg in the relay was just 0.01 faster than Ryan’s, but it will be enough for years of dinner table conversation.

“I don’t think I’m gonna live that one down,” Ryan admitted with a smile.

Congrats to Fairport track and field!

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