CICERO, NY — Mike Mullally, Sullivan West’s fast-paced, fleet-footed track star did pretty well for himself at the 2018 NYSPHSAA outdoor track and field championships (aka “States”). The season-ending event was held at Cicero-North Syracuse High School June 8-9.

Mullally harvested gold in last year’s indoor state championship, taking the 55-meter hurdles in style, and continued his winning ways by taking top honors in the recent Section IX state qualifiers at Faller Field in Middletown, NY, blowing away the competition in the 110- and 400-meter hurdles, and in the 100-meter dash.

He kicked off the first day of the States on Friday by winning the 110 hurdles, posting a time of 14.21.

A bit later, he blasted through the 400 hurdles with a time of 52.81 seconds, 2.53 seconds faster than the runner-up competitor, marking the second sub-53-second time in the history of Section IX.

And then it was on to Saturday for the Federation finals, the showdown where all bets are off and anything can happen in the blink of an eye, full metal to the pedal high school sports.

In the 110-meter hurdles event, a race that was described in the media as “a nightmare,” the top qualifier lost his balance in the fourth lane, tripped over a hurdle and crashed to the deck.

One lane over in lane five, Mullally narrowly avoided getting taken out, but gutted it out despite feeling his hip (a nagging injury that has dogged the Bulldog runner over the years), pop out up of its rightful place.

Despite the crash-and-burn in the adjacent lane, he fought past the pain to take a Federation gold with a time of 14.15, besting the second-place finisher by 0.24 seconds.

In the wake of the brutal 110, Mullally passed on the Federation 400-meter hurdles, an event in which he posted a record performance on Friday.

In the girls’ Division II events, Sullivan West’s Ava McLeod finished second in the 100-meter finals with a time of 12.47 (0.16 behind the winner), and in the 200-meter came in seventh, posting a time of 26.49, 1.06 seconds out of first place (25.43).

On July 2, Sullivan West’s “golden boy” reports to the United States Military Academy to serve his nation with honor, and hopefully add to his pile of gold medals.

[See additional photos on page 26 and online at www.riverreporter.com.]